ARSENAL CENTRAL MIDFIELD: ONE IN, ONE OUT

by .

Well here we are people, it’s the end of the year and we are 6 points off top 2. Isn’t that mad? Brendan Rodgers Arsenal fan Club was partying in the streets last night after he pulled off a shock win against a Liverpool side he largely limited. That means we’re 6 points off Chelsea and we’re 6 points off Liverpool. WILD. We were bottom after three games.

Some people are grumbling about it, I don’t really understand them. We’re 19 games in, exactly halfway into the season. There are no tricks this season, the table is the table, and we are where we are. We had the worst start in the league. We had an amazing run, crashed twice, then picked up the run again. We’re where we are because we deserve it. This isn’t some Unai Emery or Antonio Conte lucky run… this is Arsenal slowly growing with the season.

What was the biggest lesson from the Leicester game? Don’t fear Liverpool. They are a great side, but like the Yellow Man in Sin City, they feed off the screams of the weak. If you don’t show them respect, you might have a chance. Arsenal don’t have the fear against Chelsea, we’ve been great against them, but we do have it when it comes to City and Liverpool, and we have to play our way out of that. It’s a mindset, not a technical issue.

Another big point from that game last night: Leicester dropping big wins like that means nothing because they are still 9th. Our path to success this season isn’t in the mega games, it’s in the little one’s when no one is watching. Put it this way, if we’d beaten Palace, Everton and Brighton we’d be ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea right now. Consistency against the lesser teams is where we fell down last season and it’s where we’ll fall down this season if it goes wrong.

Top 4 is still a big stretch goal this season, it always has been. This is a transition year. The fear was we’d have another year like last year and sit in 7th at the end of it. So far, it seems like we’ve managed the process of onboarding really, really well. We are in the mix for 4th proper now. We’re all hyping it up like it is a given, but the reality is it’ll be tough even with all the other teams still in a bit of a mess. We have the 5th best squad in the league at the moment, that is the truth. It’s also the least experienced, and that could come with a price.

I do think the Spurs mirage is going to correct at some point. Antonio Conte is the luckiest manager in the league this season. He’s had a swath of games cancelled, loads of time to train his squad, he’s had 3 red cards go for him in the last three games, Harry Kane hasn’t been suspended, he’s had mostly home games… and they’ve been mostly poor. They couldn’t break down a 10 man Southampton yesterday. I can’t believe so many of the kids cried out to have his elite management back in the league and all he’s serving up is overlap football or LOB IT TO THE BIG MAN. Arteta has the chance to make him look dated in a few weeks, I really, really, hope he has our boys fired up for that one. A win at their place would be HUGE for the agenda.

It’s also interesting to look at the mega problems United have on their hands. They have their very own Auba problem, except OGS was too weak to address it early. Ralf Rangnick has come in and failed to address it so far. You cannot play gegenpressing football if your talisman doesn’t fancy it. You cannot progress a side with big names staring down the kids and general bitchy behaviour on the pitch. Arteta binned Auba and the squad has been rejuvenated… if United don’t take similar action, they won’t push on. The coach they have is a legend of the game, but remember, his legend has always been built on players that are 17-23. He makes stars, he doesn’t deal with them when they have £400k a week deals. This is a different job he has without the authority of a 5 year deal. Arsenal backed the manager every time the players tried to down him, now the players know he’s not going anywhere, so they behave differently. Ralf doesn’t have that.

I’m kind of hoping they have to keep playing CR7 so they piss off those young players. Mason Greenwood would be a spectacular summer signing for Arsenal this summer, it’s a long shot, but I’d be surprised if he wasn’t casting an envious eye over at his English mates getting development time under future-facing coach.

I’ve spent many years writing about having a clear vision and philosophy because it is so very, very important. Arsenal has it all at the moment, a young exciting coach (that will attract attention if he carries along this path), young exciting players (that will attract bids if we arent’ smart about their deals), a style of football that is future proof… we know where we’re going, finally. We should have started this approach a year prior, but that’s for another day. If United want Rangnick ball, they have to have a painful transition year (or two). Their kids have egos, their superstars think they know it all, and they don’t have a full-time first-team coach. Spurs have the most short term manager in football, if he doesn’t succeed this season, he’ll burn the place down to get millions THAT DO NOT EXIST. If he succeeds, he’ll piss and moan until he gets what he needs, then burn the place down (like he did at Chelsea). He took Chelsea from 1st to 5th because they didn’t hit his expectations for players. He quit Inter Milan after they massively overspent for him, then hit pandemic realities, and he couldn’t handle losing players. What are you looking at with Daniel Levey that makes you think this is a match that won’t end in Conte burning the club to the ground?

There is nothing sustainable about the way Spurs or United are operating.

Dusan Vlahovic leaking to Di Marzio that his client thinks Spurs is the right project? Get out of my face with that nonsense. The idea that a 21-year-old sees that Spurs squad as better for him than what is going on at Arsenal is farcical. Let me tell you, if he’s saying those things about Arsenal, it’s more likely that we’ve told his agent we’re not interested. There is no other reason you’d pass on literally the only club that can afford him without a painful sale.

Spurs has no money. I repeat, no money.

Arsenal don’t have a lot of money this January. I think we’re on a sell to buy. Or buy at a very low price. I’m hearing rumblings that one of our prime targets is Mattias Svanberg, the central midfielder from Bologna. Now, I don’t get transfer information direct, so don’t shoot me if it’s wrong. But it’s an interesting suggestion that lives in the world we’re playing in.

  1. You’ve got primary intel from Tomiyasu who used to play with him. The club will know character, how he trains, what the view is of the boy.
  2. Arsenal seems to be trying to create a bit of fight for AMN. Svanberg looks like the player Arsenal would like Ains to be. Transfermarkt value Svanberg at about £15m, so a like for like.
  3. The player has interesting attributes. He’s 6ft1, he made his name as a winger for Malmo, now he’s a central midfielder. That means you have someone in the middle of the park that is used to hugging touchlines, has an eye for goal and a killer pass, and the knowledge of what it is to be an attacker. It’s an interesting signing if we’re bolstering the ranks.
  4. This boy is a one touch line-breaker. If there’s one pattern you can see in all our transfers, it’s that everyone can play vertically.

Arsenal are light in central midfield. Unvertical Mo Elneny is next in line if we get an injury in January and that’s really not good news. This is the sort of move that fits perfectly with the sort of business we have been doing, so let’s see where we go with it.

The story no one wants to acknowledge is that there are people at the club that like Coutinho. Barcelona is skint, they need to make moves on that wage bill, and Coutinho is apparently in London. I suspect he’d be more likely to join Spurs, who have a contacts friendly Technical Director… but you never know. If Barca is desperate, they will release Coutinho for nothing, to free those wages. Coutinho being available is a big test of the Project Youth strategy. Now we can taste top 4 in the air, will we abandon it, or is there someone internally that can hold the club accountable?

Every young manager in the world wants experienced players because it’s easier. Always remember, Julian Nagelsmann lost in the semi of Champions League and his moan was, ‘this team needs a different type of player, someone older, but the boss says no (Rangnick).’

Ok, get yourself some Arsenal Opinion food in your system. We had our BIGGEST month for listeners and let me tell you it was NOT porn SEO that drove the traffic. Thank you for tuning in with your eyes and ears. I know I say it all the time, but podcasting is HARD and it requires a different level of effort and it’s been a totally new skill to learn (I have given you some duff formats over the years). So I appreciate all of you that gave me another chance this year with a refreshed crew. We’re loving the interaction and support… truly, you are amazing.

Also, shout out to the Grovers in the comments section. You’ve dropped about 160,000 of them this season. Quite amazing in the age of video that we’re on a basic blog chatting all things Arsenal 24/7. Thank you for being there, you’re an awesome bunch of crazies that help shape my opinion on The Arsenal every day. BIG love to you all. x

P.S. EOY podcast will get recorded today or tomorrow! We MIGHT have a special guest from another podcast we admire.

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McBright is Wright

Pedro
BIG Love to you too great man. xx
You’re good at what you do.
I can’t remember ever missing any article in years gone by. Loved every single one of them.
Wishing you all the best man
160k post for 2021? Hmmmm! I guess people like me should comment more than just read.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Very good read but dealing with point dropped as errors ain’t gonna give us jack.
We didn’t and it did. Move on.

Rich

AFC Forever I see it a bit differently, competition is a good thing, it what drives others to be better, City setting exceptionally high standards through an elite performance culture, just gives us something special to aspire too The idea we make ourselves better by demanding that they enforce laws to make others worse, won’t make us any better, it’ll just lower overall standards Financial FairPlay just caused more of the monopolies that it claimed they were trying to prevent, like most protectionist policies do, why do you think the big clubs gleefully signed up to it? Bayern Munich have… Read more »

AFC Forever

Midwest

Yep, they didn’t need to bother. Wenger said the problem with doping was the lack of opportunity for young players & he was right. It’ doesn’t matter who you support there is nothing greater than watching young players break through. It creates an identity and connection between players & fans which is priceless.

AFC Forever

Rich “Direct competition is a good thing, it’s what drives progress + innovation, protectionist policies just push stagnation + regression” Absolutely. FFP would never have worked we all knew that. However, where rules are in place they should be adhered to or there’s no point having them. Unlimited budgets could result in the stock piling of talent and that should be avoided. Chelsea tried to do it through the loan system, as Midwest mentioned. Manipulation of the rules not doping. . Barcelona tried to keep up by fiddling transfer fees with Juventus and now look at them. For me it’s… Read more »

Pierre

Nigel Tufnell “Pierre,We don’t even disagree that much, and my comparison of Partey to Xhaka was clearly based on recent form… I kept saying it…. Xhaka has been better for a few games now. Is it so painful for you to admit that little thing.You’re contorting yourself like IAT-Bamford to try and avoid that simple little fact. It’s only temporary anyway, I am aware.” You are going into jackanory mode I’m afraid and making up your own little story about what I’ve supposed to have said about Partey and Xhaka. In fact the only comment i made earlier about partey… Read more »

Rich

AFC Forever I’d like to see the homegrown rule changed from 17/8, down to 14/11 or 13/12 We can still attract the best from around the world, but it would apply more pressure on clubs to give young people opportunities, and train up their own talent It then becomes slightly less about who has the biggest budgets, but who has the best coaches and who can develop the best talent Not all that talent will break through at their parent club, but those that don’t breakthrough, will then filter downwards, and that will improve the quality of the clubs underneath,… Read more »

Nigel Tufnel

Yeah, Pierre …
I caught that one after my comment. I’ve been doing too much at the same time.

Good comment, and we’re all pulling in the same direction.

Pierre

City were fortunate tonight in that they had one of the newer breed of referees.

If it had been Dean, oliver or Atkinson they wouldn’t have allowed city the cheap free kicks they were awarded during the final 15 minutes…

For a team like Brentford to have a chance against a top 6 club , they need a ref who gives the 50/50 decisions to the home side …..similar to when they beat Arsenal..

Time Up

I liked the ginger with Scottish name Argentinian Mac Alister. He controlled the midfield against Chelsea and big teams with minimal fuss. Had working strong little player he is.

Surprised Scotland not claiming him yet.

Time Up

Arteta against City will go with Laca. I personally think, put ESR as false 9 would be the best option to gain control in midfield.

Partey and Xhaka need to have a good game. First time in a while, I feel excited and not scared playing City.

Nigel Tufnel

Foden looks like an @$$hole with that hair.

Really. Great player, but that would make me wonder about dropping a lot of money on him. Also his eyes looked a bit heroine chic in the post match interview.

It’s like girls with too many tattoos and piercings… there’s something in there that just ain’t right… childhood issues, emotional scars, and future problems.

Tony

Thinking about the City game I along with others thought we could get something from the Bin Dipper’s game, but Arteta overthought the game and we were overrun. Now a few games later and a few of us seems to think this is our best chance thus far to get something out of the City game: we have the players with few injuries and Omicron infections. The PL litmus test tomorrow is where we show how far we’ve come from the 5:0 thrashing we received in August. It’s no secret City have better players in numbers than us and a… Read more »

China1

Look as great as city are, IF we beat them, there’s every chance they’ll be only 3 points ahead of second. Ofc if city beat us and Chelsea and liverpool draw it looks like dark days for the title race so early

China1

Yeah Tony I think a win this weekend would be a turning point for our season Not because the points are so valuable or because it would be such a massive surprise considering our form – but because it would lay the market down that we can now beat the best team in the world. We know we can beat average and poor teams where most of the points lie but we also know we get smashed vs the best teams. The confidence a win would give the team would be game changing. We will no doubt still have slip… Read more »

China1

Fuck Spurs I’m not worried about them really just waiting for their correction

Re man Utd I think rangnick is a bit of a moaner himself which considering his squad is too is not going to be conducive to having a good end to the season. I was worried when he joined but seeing him now I’m not sure he has what it takes to manage a massive team in England with all those egos and so much pressure

Tony

“and the last part is confidence and belief.”

Amen China.

Tony

Also agree China that Rangnick is far better suited to a young developing team than the egotistical, over-pampered, diva-superstars’ throwing hissy fits. For us it was always my intention to have Rangnick come in and assess the situation and keep who he felt was conducive to his plans and then those that weren’t let go. I envisaged Edu to go and Arteta to be given time under Rangnick’s oversight. From there, Rangnick could decide whether to bring in a more experienced manager of persist with Arteta. It was never my desire for Rangnick to manage the team; only to create… Read more »

China1

Yeah Tony I don’t doubt that he has some talent, but seeing him moan about the league cup being a distraction just 5 mins after he landed in England is a bit of a red flag for me as a new manager.

I’m not sure if it suggests over confidence that you walk in the door and start telling people that you know better or if it’s a sign of a lack of confidence that he is already feeling a bit of pressure at the club and wants to deflect by criticizing somewhere else

Tom

“Wenger eagle Who are these “conveyor belt of world class talent” that you’re referring to?“ Dissenter, I’m surprised you ask…….these are the very well known $, €, and £. They just spent £100m on a player they really didn’t need and who hardly fits into their system. And the only reason they didn’t spend another £100m right after that was because Levy got greedy and wanted £150m. As AFC and others have said City are stacked with top level talented players who can all play multiple positions and missing even 3 or 4 for a short period won’t make a… Read more »

Ronald Bolo

Awesome short interview from Ramsdale
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sFYH3lOrHA

Ronald Bolo

Chelsea fans crying about injury when they have a bench that can match man city. Bollocks
Arrizabalaga, Alonso, Kanté, Chalobah, Saúl, Barkley, Ziyech, Havertz, Sarr is a team that should be able to compete for top 10 at least.

Habesha Gooner

Some cunt is starting rumors about Saka to Liverpool. We would never sell him even for a 100 mil. Next summer, we need to give all our young best players new improved contracts.

And what this shows is we are on the rise. Pretty soon we are going to start to scare even the big teams. We are starting to be seen as threats.

Ustyno

I read somewhere that Saka will have his contract extended till 2027 in the summer, don’t know if it’s true but it’s now a necessity

Quite a while when top teams will look at our players,this days it all about relegation battlers but that’s about to change if our players continue like this

Unoni

Once we play spurs on the 16th of jan we won’t face a rival until we play United on April 23rd This is a great run of games for us to gain a run on chelsea and maybe even Liverpool. Whatever happens, I will be delighted should we achieve top four status again but personally, finishing above chelsea for the first time since wenger left would be the sweetest of ways to announce our return to the big time. We are getting there. It took some time and will continue to do so but we have the makings now of… Read more »

Rich

We’ve taken 2 points off City since December 2015 We’ve beaten them in 2 FA Cup Semi Final’s, but generally they’ve had our number… They’ll be favourites on Saturday, but our home form is good, be brilliant if we could take something from the game, but I won’t be too disappointed or surprised if we don’t. Away to Spurs is the 6 pointer, imperative we avoid defeat there, a point for us away, would be a good result for us, and a bad result for them, then we need to beat Burnley at home 4 points from 9 isn’t great,… Read more »

The Bard

The rumours of Saka to Liverpool are hopefully rubbish but a sign of things to come. Ive been banging on that this idea of Arsenal being a long term project is PR bullshit. There is no such thing in football these days. Saka is hot property and his agent will be looking to exploit that. If someone comes in with a massive wage deal and the opportunity to play CL what’s he going to say ? No Im invested in the long term project at Arsenal.

Sid

We need to define long term project, Is that 3 yrs? 4yrs? 5yrs?

Rich

The Bard The fact that the top teams want our players, is a good thing, not a bad thing… You’re just letting your anxieties get the best of you, there’s nothing to fear, but fear itself… The alternative to pulling one of the worlds top young talents out of our academy, is not pulling one of the worlds top young talents out of our academy….. Would you rather Saka wasn’t as good as he is? Just so no top teams would be interested in any of our players? And that we had no top players valued at £100 million +?… Read more »

Sid

Alexis joined Arsenal because of Wenger, Suarez wanted to join Arsenal because of Wenger.
Klopp is the new Wenger, tall, intelligent, likeable,
born not far from where Wenger was born.

Pierre

Saka will sign a new improved contract with us, he will probably give Arsenal another couple of seasons at most to see if we match his ambition. Ambition is the key word, that is why it is imperative that we qualify for champions league this season and then bring in a couple of top quality players to challenge for the title. Bissouma has always been my first choice for the last 2 seasons, isak up top for me , the little I’ve seen of him has impressed me. The other possibility is that another of our kids make the breakthrough… Read more »

Aussie+Gooner

Rangnick has inherited a hornets nest at Utd full of ego, talent and divas. It is not his thing and in time it will continue to unravel. There is nothing to stop us emulating the Chavs policy of hovering up promising youth and selling them on as part from an organised academy setup – which I believe we now have. Unfortunately atm our developed talent is required to build our squad and is therefore not for sale for profit. We do not have the financial clout like the Chavs to supplement our developing talent with ‘world class’ add ons! $hitty… Read more »

Graham62

Sid

Would Arsenal have upped it to £40,000,002?

I wonder.

NORG

G62

That was the problem – they wouldn’t. If the purchase of Suarez had gone through how long would it have been before Suarez would have wanted to move because of the lack of ambition at AFC or with Wenger. Wenger stepped back whilst Ivan wanted to go further.

Hopefully lessons have been learnt and the new stars will not be disappointed.

Markymark

Saka may well review what happened to AOC before thinking about Liverpool. I’ feel that Saka would be gobbled up by Barcelona some time in the future.
Right now let’s just enjoy it.