Bad news on the injury front. Ironman Granit Xhaka is out for 3 months. Whatever you think about him, that is a massive issue for Arsenal because it depletes us of reliable experience and it means we’re a little closer to a 3 month Mo Elneny residency in our midfield.
It’s a killer as well because the injury was a total freak. How much bad luck do we consistently get these days? It’s always something.
This could be an opportunity.
No.
It has to be an opportunity for some of the younger players to make moves.
AMN is going to land minutes. He has to grab them. He has to stay focused, up his intensity, and find the midfield version of whatever he did in the FA Cup run.
Sambi Lokonga is regarded as a future superstar of European football. But he’s still a little lightweight for the league. He has to find a bit of bite to his game and continue to impress in the middle with his already up-to-speed passing and movement.
There might be a crack in the blinds for Charlie Patino. Look, he’s very young, he’s super green, but he has something about his game. Could he earn himself some minutes? You’d imagine he will in the League Cup.
There’s also a bit of chatter about Jack Wilshere. I love the player, he’s homegrown, and it’d be sexy to see him back at The Arsenal, but I’m not sure we can register him and he’s probably a way off Premier League full-fitness. But it’s a sexy idea, if not a little naive.
Matt from the podcast said yesterday that we might be about to feel the Gilberto-effect of losing Granit. If you don’t know what that means, back in the day, Gilberto was a bit of a mystery to people. The Brazilian midfielder was incredibly technical, but not as bang bang as our other players, so people didn’t understand what he did. Then he got injured, and we felt the pain of his absence. Closing down spaces, covering the back 4, using his movement to do clever things. Granit has his issues, his very visible HORROR moments cloud that he’s pretty reliable in the main. This is not great news for us, so let’s hope some players can step up in his absence.
One player who might have stepped into Granit’s shoes would have been Matteo. The Frenchman has performed pretty well for Marseille this season, but we’re barely out of September and French journo Romain Canuti is reporting this:
“There are a few players at Marseille who are struggling with Guendouzi. His way of working, when he always blames others for things, when he falls to his knees in training to implore God because a touch isn’t good enough, it grates”
I love this.
When everyone was beating the club over the head for being sh*t, this was the story that people kept coming back to: MATTEO WAS MISMANAGED.
Well, here we are, in September, and his teammates are leaking against him.
Did you see any of the above type behaviour at the weekend? Did you see any of the petulance, even when we were losing? No. You don’t want it. Being a d*ckhead is not ‘caring too much’, it’s a waste of energy. When players are gossiping about dickheads, it wastes time. When coaches have to worry about how hard to discipline a good player, it shifts focus from the helping people that want to behave. He is going to struggle if he continues to disrupt like this… but it’s clearly not a management issue, it’s a Matteo problem.
This week has given clarity to a lot of things, one of them, is culture. When you are making changes, things always get worse before they get better. We’ve moved on 30 players in 2 years. We’ve cut big players that didn’t have the character or behaviour we desired, and at times, it felt counter-productive. But now, we can see that actually, those moves look good. All the new players we signed seemed to have been vetted for good egg/bad egg vibes. Notable that a huge chunk of the fanbase wanted Aouar, but we passed, like the rest of Europe, because the backroom team wouldn’t punt on a talented guy that floats in and out of interest.
You can’t just sign in good eggs. They need to have talent. Martin Odegaard is a good egg, that everyone loved around the club, who boasted an incredibly high ceiling. More of those types as we move forward.
Also worth noting this: Arsenal fans threw a shit fit about our signings. Why? Because the system was not to be trusted. This summer needed to be 100%. We signed 6 players that basically no one really knew much about. If I’m going to be blunt, this summer was like a typical Arsene Wenger summer.
Robert Pires? All we knew is he was good in Champ Man.
Thierry Henry? Failed right wing back.
Patrick Vieira? Couldn’t make it at Milan.
Marc Overmars? Busted flush.
Nik Anelka? Wtf?
We had no idea, but after a while, we trusted his talent ID, even when players looked hopeless. I remember Wenger telling us Robert Pires would be like Zidane. No one could see it, but Wenger could, and it happened.
This summers deals, so far, has made the doubters looks silly. Those ‘THE NEEDLE DIDN’T MOVE’ folk will happily chew down some of that humble pie, because they didn’t want to be right. Good analysts and scouts are supposed to find value where others can’t see it. If things carry on this way… we’ll trust January. Then we’ll trust the summer. We’ll finally get a bit of trust back in a system that let us down very badly over the past decade.
Finally, before I go. How good are we all feeling today? Nothing feels as good as a NLD win. To think, only a few weeks ago, a serious conversation was whether it was ok for Arteta to use the word ‘project.’ Can you imagine being that petty? In all honesty, I can, but come on people… getting riled by the word ‘project.’ Take a walk.
Right, that’s me done. See you in the comments… but before you go there, watch the video or listen to the podcast.
Barca is doomed. Back into the dark ages for them.
Dream… yep… I did Chiesa clebrated like a madman too.. haha
Emery used all his 5 sub before the 70th min. Legend lol.
Koeman might get sacked on the bus ride home.
Mark
You are too obsessed with this Saliba boy who hasn’t played. a single game in the EPL. You propose that we entrust our defence to a 19/20 yr old boy.
When offered a loan deal he chose to go to France instead of in the EPL to gain actual experience.
As far as you’ve not seen him play here don’t presume he can walk into our set up straight away.
Oli the clown could not make up his mind with the sub!.
Any team that badly misses a lugubrious lump like Xhaka is a team destined for relegation. Xhaka is shite
Should’ve socred Villarreal, what a miss
Oh come on Villareal… De Gea tried to give you a goal.
Villarreal looking like scoring
ManU defending and bringing on JLings lol.
Exactly what we needed.
Oh Fuck off Ronaldo.. The shirt rip off move… really.
Where dafug is Weagle? He must be somewhere talking about Ronaldo scoring yet another UCL goal.
This is paper over cracks it’s obvious. Manure deserved to lose today.
Ole dodges another bullet
Well at least Chelski lost.. anytime they lose… I’m happy. Dont get any annoying texts.
Whatever it takes to keep Ole in the job I guess.
Havyn: “You are too obsessed with this Saliba boy who hasn’t played. a single game in the EPL… When offered a loan deal he chose to go to France instead of in the EPL to gain actual experience.” Mbappe and Messi haven’t played in the EPL so they have no actual experience I guess. “You propose that we entrust our defence to a 19/20 yr old boy.” We entrusted it to a 24 yo player that had managed a total of 1 top flight season with less games played in a top league than the 20 yo Saliba. And we… Read more »
Havertz wins quite a lot of headers because he is quite tall. But he isn’t really very good at them. He might have scored at the death there if he had actually put head onto ball rather than just let the ball hit his head and also opened his eyes. He had his eyes shut tight long before he made contact with his head to the ball. No surprise Chelsea didn’t register in this match. No real flow to their game. Chalobah though does look pretty good for them in the future. Just a little cameo role for him tonight… Read more »
Was just wondering if Xhaka’s ACL injury will slow him down
Maybe it will keep him from lunging in on tackles. Can’t imagine he could run much slower. If I remember right they made him walk off.. in retrospect they should have stretchered him off, if it was a tear he could have made it worse.
Why do top clubs sign laughable managers, I’ll never know. Who in the whole wide world thought that Koeman will make it in Barcelona?! He was garbage in the EPL, you’d expect he’ll struggle in one of the world’s giant clubs. Some people’s logic is so out there.
On the Mattie thing..
I’m guessing that saliba is getting a front row seat of how not to fuck up your career premiere.
May make him more determined should and if he comes back.esp if we are getting buzz reviews still.
Mark
Imagine a back three of saliba gabs n white as sweeper.
Could happen
Koeman appointment was just another in a thousand item long list of crack head stupid decisions by Barcelona management in the last 10 years
People need to go to jail for some of those decisions
In a couple of years pass… Club made 55m fro. Yoot sells..
Sorting it self out
Midwest Gun
A slow player losing speed is more detrimental than an Aubameyang type. Per Mertesacker is probably the slowest football known to man. Once injuries started to pile up in 2014, then boom. career over
Raptora, you have to stop whining on about Saliba. Ben White is the guy now. Slummed it in the Championship and won the league. Came up into the Prem and had season good enough to get a call-up. Just dropped a masterclass against Spurs.
Saliba has a year to prove himself at a decent French club, then he’ll have the chance to fight in the Premier League next season.
We’re out of the slump now, that argument is dead.
Pedro,
We are a legion and Johnny is one of us.
Pedro
A while ago people mentioned Saliba and how he’s doing well at Marseille and you said they were talking him up instead of supporting Ben White
So I ask why are you bringing up Matteo of the same team,or is it because it’s negative and so make Arteta’s decision right and Saliba’s decision will make him look wrong?
I was thinking you will let all these go,so we can move ahead together,things are looking up now
Just my observation
Raptora, I told Johnny that if he takes a day off… you will lead a coup against him.
Rich, Stop with the dissenter misrepresentations of what I say. I’ll clear it up since you’re both dishonest. I didn’t call Willock “brain dead” as you just lied. I said he has no “footballing brain” big difference you genius. Football brain = knowing what positions to take up on the pitch, who and when, to pass to, intelligent pressing and defending (like Ødegaard shows). Your made up phrase: Brain dead = someone who talks about actual Joe Willock -turning into someday- Your exact Quote : “What were Gnabry, De Bruyne, Grealish, Salah, Mane, Aubameyang, Bruno Fernandes, Son, Firminio, Mahrez, Van… Read more »
Ustyno, because Matteo is a wrong’un and people weaponise his expulsion to shit on the club.
Same as everyone was doing after Ben White had a bad first game.
I’ve just done the poll. It’s quite a loaded set of questions (compared to the previous polls) where there’s only one logical answer. Probably more insight to be had in the comments section at the end. Hope to hear some of that qualitative stuff in the results.
Nigel Tufnell
None of us know how a 22yr old will develop with regular playing time, we all just have opinions
The list of players I gave certainly weren’t world class at 22, and that was my point
You misinterpreted what I said, so I gave you some of your own medicine
What’s good for the goose, is good for the gander
Joe Willock = exciting young player, big potential
Even though I never want to see him wearing an Arsenal shirt again, I wish Xhaka a speedy recovery. People celebrating his injury need to get a grip.
The hype machine has reached the next level when Xhaka is being compared with Gilberto. If anything, Sambi has made the transition to the PL look easier than I thought possible. Doesn’t look even remotely lightweight. That said, if he or Partey get injured, we’ll have a big problem on our hands.
I cant wish injury on any of our players so speedy recovery xhaka
I am not a fan but he was great in Sunday
We need to replace him If we move him on
Can’t see the Gilberto comparison having watched them both many times xhaka is 30 percent the player Gilberto was
Enjoyed the podcast this week who can’t be happy watching Pedro and Johnny celebrate the win
Beating spurs is magnificent
I got 3 spurs dad’s at my kids school,the smile on my face and the breezy morning lads how are we all today I say to them makes them want to die inside and I love it
One of them admitted to me that he left the match on 34 mins
Asked him if he could see me waving at him
From the north bank ?
Lol
@Havyn ” Mark You are too obsessed with this Saliba boy who hasn’t played. a single game in the EPL. You propose that we entrust our defence to a 19/20 yr old boy.” Havyn , I think it’s obvious that you have never seen him play , by your above statement. Not sure that whether he’s played in the Prem is a determining factor for ability. Sounds a bit naive. As for entrusting our defence? How about giving him a fair chance to show what he could do. Could have saved us £50m. Just don’t be surprised when he tells… Read more »
Granit was present for 90% of all our bad performances in the last 5 years and we’re now going to feel what it’s like not to have him? We’ve already felt what it’s like to have him…
Also he’s only played well once this season – whilst our midfield was decent in all 3 games he missed.
The Xhaka importance revisionism train rolls on. Gilberto he is not.
There’s this really odd propensity for people to overlook all the average and poor performances Xhaka gave us and some in on the very small number of games where he didn’t play and we lost and be like SEE HE IS GOOD AFTER ALL
All the average and poor performances whitewashed from memory. Unreal
Mark, get over it.. ……Obsession with Saliba. Its all because it’s a way to spin negative. Any way to kick our own players. How about you forget the price for a few weeks, and give White a chamce. He’s putting in shifts and trying to win, trying to justify the high price as much as possible. You just get a perverse thrill trying to prove yourself right all the time. Pedro has perspective. He wants the club to succeed,, regardless of who gets the credit.. Let’s see what we can do defensively. 3rd best last year. Improved with Tomiyasu, Tavares,… Read more »
If we don’t win against Brighton the very first comment will be about how we miss Xhaka
Even tho we didn’t miss him for 3 games already this season…
Pedro I think it’s a bit early to describe sambi as a future superstar of European football but he is good and does show lots of potential
The one I’m most interested in is AMN because he’s less gifted than sambi but he has this way of making a position his own over time. Wondering if he can really do that at CM or if it’s a bridge too far
Haha comparing Xhaka to Gilberto. Brilliant.
There is going to be no Gilberto effect. Quite the opposite infact.
It will give our better midfielders a chance to gain a spot, rather than just a tets favourite in Xhaka to be a guaranteed starter at their expense.
For all the ‘experience’ xhaka has, he’s an absolute dimwit, and an average at best midfielder.
This injury (albeit I wouldn’t wish xhaka to be injured) gives me more hope than if he wasn’t injured.
Let’s see what Sambi and amn can do
Mark, telling that you want to talk about how good a player you never watch is after this new defence just won hearts and minds over the last 3 games.
I am afraid that the Xhaka injury would prompt Arteta to activate his galaxy brain.
Morning all I have to say Xhaka being out for 3 months is a blessing in disguise. Don’t get me wrong but many including me wanted him to go to Rome. In fact I’ve posted numerous times in Wenger’s ‘relic’ years I wanted Xhaka never to wear the shirt again. Perhaps this season mostly without the cumbersome hoofer of the diagonal ball, we might get close to CL this season or by some unforeseen lack in form from the top 4 usual suspects end up in the CL next season. I keep telling myself dreams are good: not wet ones… Read more »
Some Mark pearlers, just as a reminder: On signing the right players: ‘Even if we rushed out and bought a striker and RB, you just have no confidence in Artedu to get the right bodies in, I mean Trippier FFS, Arteta just doesn’t learn or I think he’s just totally out of his depth a complete Blagger and fuckin lucky to have lasted this long. Due to the pandemic not because of it’ On the problem with ESR and Saka: ‘I notice Pedro keeps quiet on the Saka ESR debate and how they cost us. Quick enough to try to… Read more »
LOL. CHECKMATE MARK!
Raul, too many people went all in on this project being over and took it too far. Slagging 6 new signings you don’t know was never a sharp move. But I have the reciepts.
Wow Pedro, going hard at mark there. Let’s see, Saliba and his handling generally a concern? Probably. White at 50 still seems high. Still. I’m growing in confidence about wee Ben, but seemed far from a good value at the time. Like another planet far. Sure, retrospectoscope shows a different picture, but I’d hardly call a man out for believing White a poor value at the time of signing. Pepe-like kind of thing. What happens to Saliba now does not look promising. He seems an immense talent, to foul the deal with him before we get to see him in… Read more »
Janky, if every opinion is embarrassingly wrong… and your big swing is ‘Saliba over White’… then you have a roll call of shame.
‘What does moving to the Middle East in your prime have to do with anything’ is such a very bad take.
…. But the main point, which you demonstrate perfectly with the ‘how were we to know’ is that Mark shouldn’t be trusted with his opinions because he didn’t know and the coach he called to be sacked all summer did.
PEDRO. I know all about. Funny thing is they haven’t even seen saliba in action for us yet but he is the messiah? I don’t understand. If we had bought saliba for 5m most wouldn’t even give a shit. It’s a very convinient way to shit on the club so most run with it. I’m just suprised mark couldn’t wait for the next lose as i’m sure cg,val and tr7 are.
Pedro The loss of Xhaka is as you said a blow, because he played very well on Sunday alongside Partey and he was one of only three experienced players in team. We have to write him off for three months minimum and that creates a massive hole in team notwithstanding the usual critics have to say. Some might argue that Maitland-Niles or Lokonga can fill the gap. Personally I am not convinced. Both are in my book Bench material. I am fairly sure that the plan was that Elneny leaves the club either in January or next June at latest.… Read more »
Guendozi is not a bad character, hes just hungrier, he was talking to a fellow player to up his game, he hates losing. I know we loved lazy owl eyed ozil who had no ambition. If rather have guendozi than xhaka
It great that Arsenal beat the North London Farmers. We are yet to see whether its the law of averages at play or the real deal
We dont need Xhakalson, he used his ration of one good game every 2 years, in the game against the North London Farmers
“Patino is I am sure the “future” and might have made a cameo appearance sometime this season, but it is inconceivable that he will be a replacement for Xhaka
Willock would have replaced Xhaka and added more value to the team as he is at Newcastle.
Gets more goals, too, ES.
Good job your book isn’t used at the club, ES
Guendozi is the main guy in that Marseille midfield, they are 3rd in the table,
Diet Pep fanboys prefer to be 10th as long as the squad hugs and sings kumbaya
Testosterone is what drives sportmen,
introducing silicone valley culture where soy and sitting for hours(emasculation) gets you results will not work for sports
Pedro, that was absolutely savage 🤣 Nice to see you kick out at some of the ankle biters that nip at you incessantly in these comments.
Tony
Willock is not remotely a replacement for Xhaka.
No-one suggests that Xhaka is a great player, but he played very well on Sunday alongside Partey.
It gave Smith-Rowe, Odegaard and Saka the freedom to play an expansive game, which we
have not seen for a very long time.
Let’s hope that Arteta doesn’t find a way of messing it up. For me , it feels like we are back to where we were pre Villarreal Europa semi. Arteta (or should i say smith rowe)had turned around our early season relegation form, confidence was growing in the manager and the team and the Europa final was a distinct possibility. So what did Arteta do , he started to over think things and came up with the master plan of playing without a striker in the first leg and with only one central midfieldrr in the 2nd leg , neither… Read more »
Brighton away
Palace..home
Villa …home
9 points will see us sitting in the top 4 if we can overcome the monumental blow of losing Granite Xhaka.
I can’t believe people are still discussing how Xhaka is important to the team. Honestly he is not. Even his biggest fan Arteta wanted to offload him to mid table Roma to get better players in Locatelli and Guiamaraes. I think his insignificance will be shown over the next three months. We won’t be losing because we have a poor midfield and we were missing Xhaka. The Saliba debate has also gotten boring. What is done is done. Most sensible fans thought it would have been wise to give the kid a chance before spending 50 mil on a 35… Read more »
Pierre
Absolutely spot on , just play Lokonga instead of Xhaka. Keep the same team going . Brighton isnt going to be an easy game .
Sorry, I haven’t seen anything from White to justify his transfer fee yet, not even close. And this isn’t some agenda driven opinion from a butt hurt Saliba fanboy or a penny pinching fiscal conservative concerned with the clubs future buying power. From Ramsdale, yes. Odegaard, yes. Tomiyasu, yes Lokonga and Tavares, yes It’s amazing how some lower their standards for what a supposed Rolls-Royce CB should perform like. We paid over the odds because of the English premium, fine………but then it was worth it because he would hit the ground running we were told. And when he didn’t hit… Read more »
No-one suggests that Xhaka is irreplaceable, but what he offered on Sunday was “experience”
in a very young team where eight of the starters were aged 20-23.
Lokonga is untested in the EPL and it remains to be seen how well he can cope with the intensity and pressure.
Good stuff Pierre, Habesha and Tom.
Arsenal need to play with a “settled” defence and hopefully we have now found one with
Ramsdale, Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel and Tierney.
Whether they turn out to be the solution to our prayers when we play top opposition remains
to be seen.
We can review the situation next summer and decide then whether Saliba can add strength
to our first team/squad.
Thanks Jamie.
Habesha Gooner, United keep winning games from losing positions because of their individual talent rather than Ole’s coaching acumen. Although he does deserve some credit for keeping cool under pressure I suppose.
Getting comprehensively outplayed by Villarreal in front of the home crowd isn’t a good look for United.
If i could criticise Arteta( without getting hung drawn and Quartered ) i would suggest that he should be more on the ball with his substitutions.
Xhaka and saka went down with cramp or worse in the 2nd half and it took 5 minutes at least before they were replaced..
Pierre
Agreed
I made the same point after game against Spurs. The lack of substitutions probably cost us
the goal conceded.
It was clear in last 20 minutes that the young team were tiring.
Part of the problem is that our bench is significantly weaker than our starting eleven particularly in defence and midfield.
Arteta can get a lesson or two by Emery on how to impact the game positively with his substitutions. Arteta has been a stable 3.5/10 in that regard.
ES/ Pierre agree about the subs; I always think that assistant coaches should step up if a manager hasn’t spotted the need for fresh legs- that’s not absolving Arteta as it’s possible that they did say something and he ignored it.
I did like our subs though, all very athletic players who cover the ground, able to get in a fair few sprints to rush the opposition players – qualities that you really need in a sub.
Arteta can get a lesson or two by Emery on how to impact the game positively with his substitutions. Arteta has been a stable 3.5/10 in that regard.
The famous Emery just botched the game yesterday , his side shouldve won but still conceding in the 90+ min .
I don’t believe this Lokonga is inexperienced bullshit. Inexperience costs you. But Xhaka costs you while being experienced. He gives the ball away in dangerous positions. He doesn’t move his team vertically with out passing and he makes rash decisions that result in bookings, redcards and dangerous free kicks.
Even if Lokonga does all this stuff, he will be forgiven because he is young and coming in to a new league. But he doesn’t. He is composed and very aware. For that reason, if Partey and Lokonga aren’t injured, we won’t miss Xhaka.
I wouldn’t put it past Arteta to replace Xhaka with Kola !
Habesha
Lokonga in his young career hasnt got a single red card. Contrast that with the mighty experienced Granit Xhaka . Although I didnt want him to be out for 3 months , we are really thin at quality midfield .
Pedro above salivating like he has a 100% proof that we’ve turned a corner, we’ll have a stunning season ahead and that Arteta’s Arsenal story will be written down as a success in the history books. After 1 excellent game we’ve had.
Pedro: “Raul, too many people went all in on this project being over and took it too far.”
And you haven’t went all in on the opposite and calling Arteta the best young manager etc with relative to zero proof? This sentence is so weird I can’t decide if to laugh or cry.
Ustyno, because Matteo is a wrong’un and people weaponise his expulsion to shit on the club. Same as everyone was doing after Ben White had a bad first game. Pedro If Matteo is a wrong ‘un as you said,was Saliba the right one at least his manager said good things about him,and if it’s correct why didn’t you write a post him but chose the wrong ‘un Matteo For all we know Arteta might leave Arsenal before Matteo finally leaves us,you know this thing can happen so fast though I’m wishing them all good My point is bringing the negatives… Read more »
Same Pedro that refused to set a goal for Arsenal and Arteta to reach this season that he would consider a good finish and doable because was too scared that anything he said would be used against him aka afraid of total and utter failure.
A Bissouma/Partey midfield would be unholy.
Yeah, one game doesn’t make us conquers. Let’s see how we fair at the weekend.
I wonder if Arteta might surprise some people and be working with Calum Chambers to play him in the midfield alongside Partey.
Chambers has previously played fairly well in midfield, and I don’t think he is a big downgrade on Xhaka. If Partey gives him guidance in-game and these training days are used well, he could be the round peg in a square hole that helps out.
Raptora
pot kettle etc
I can make a compilation of Pedro’s pearls but I’m too lazy to do it. I know he’s one of Arteta’s royal guards but he has asked for Arteta’s head on a few occasions. He is here laughing at people defending Saliba, yet less than a month ago he was talking about sending Saliba on loan being a mistake. Thing is, I don’t mind people changing their opinions based on the changing information that they are presented with. In fact, that’s usually how things should be. But to brag in the faces of people for being right, when you’re a… Read more »
InsideRight,
I’d rather watch AMN and Lokonga in midfield than Chambers. Calum should have been sold as we have Tomi, Soares, AMN in the RB position, and Gabriel, White, Holding, Mari and Tomi in CB. I’d say that quite a few of the bottom teams would have been interested in him if he was made available to leave.
Saka went down with what looked like cramp in the 74th minute , he was subbed in the 86th minute when we had a fit, healthy and athletic AMN on the bench..
Arteta needs to learn to trust players like AMN as he never let’s the team down when coming on…leaving it until the 86th minute made little sense..
Raptora
“I’d rather watch AMN and Lokonga in midfield than Chambers”
I agree , we have 4 options to replace xhaka before even considering chambers.
Lakonga
AMN
Odegaard
Elneny
Probably in that order , though i wouldn’t be surprised to see Arteta put Odegaard alongside Partey…
Pedro
I don’t know. A few weeks ago you were calling for Arteta to be sacked (for the 2nd time) and calling one of our games a ‘disasterclass’. Not sure you should be celebrating your yo-yo behaviour or talking down to other fans with legitimate concerns.
That moved out 30 players comment is also really sloppy research and not borne out by the facts. Try 11.
As for signings, Arsene hit the ground running with the Vieira signing before he managed his first match. The fans were buzzing from the first time they saw Paddy.
The concern some fans had (you can check the record if you want, but my concern was more over priority than quality) wasn not just based on ignorance but on the various calamitous transfer decisions made since Arteta took over. It’s looking like he’s learned from some of his mistakes and that’s a good thing. Let’s not pretend that the previous mistakes never happened please.
Anything less than 9 points against mid tablers brighton, palace, Villa should be considered failure
Dusan Vlahovic refusing to sign an extension… we could worse than to upgrade Lacazette with him.
Torreira is on loan there… if Lucas continues to do well there perhaps we can offer £10m plus Torreira? (Vlahovic is labelled as worth £36m on transfermarkt).
A thought on Torreira, I liked him under Emery but it’s clear that his heart isn’t in London. Shame really because if it was it would have been an interesting idea and experience to see how he would have fared along as Thomas Partey’s partner/understudy with Xhaka now out for so long…