So the concentration is back on the Premier League race for top 4. This season is going to go down as one of the best in years. The League is still competitive between Liverpool and City. 3rd and 4th place look very much open to about 5 teams. The relegation battle is fully open as well.
Arsenal are in the mixer for the top 3. Yeah. I’m going to say top 3 because I don’t think Chelsea has been convincing this season and I suspect Tuchel needs a good Champions League run to justify his next major deal.
United slipped yesterday to Watford. As we’ve said many times this season, making top 4 is mostly down to doing well against the teams you are supposed to do well against. A point at Watford just isn’t cutting it right now. We should also factor that they might have a Champions League run in them, their players are toxic, but they love the big occasions, so you might see a dip in the league. Also… their March run is horrendous.
Arsenal has been doing well against so-called lesser sides this season and it’s just as well because 3 of the next 4 games coming up that are against sides you’d fancy us against. March is Watford, Liverpool, Leicester, and Villa. We’re at the stage now where slips are going to be costly. 3 wins is the expectation in those easier games. Liverpool is bonus ball territory, but as Johnny pointed out in the podcast, it really is about time we did something against them in the league. We’re good enough to do so if everyone is fit and the red cards don’t come out.
In an ideal world, you’d want to beat the lesser sides so the sting is taken out of the games against the sides that are tougher. You don’t want to have to go to The Bowl or beat Chelsea to make the top 4.
My view of the top 4 race is that we’re still not favorites, it doesn’t matter how excited you get about this run, United and Spurs have more experienced players. We have the youngest squad in the league, the youngest coach, you can’t pretend that doesn’t mean anything, regardless of how well they are playing, or how good the decisions have been of late. Spurs are 6 points behind us. We haven’t won the games in hand yet. It is going to be really, really difficult to deliver under the pressure.
… but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. Again, we discuss the fearlessness of youth on the podcast. Sometimes a lack of experience means a lack of failure baggage. This team hasn’t achieved anything together, but at the same time, they’ve not had years of failing together to bog them down. Spurs have Spursiness, it’s part of their DNA. United players are thinking about futures beyond United this summer because there will be an almighty clear out at Old Trafford. West Ham just don’t look in great shape and their squad is mainly a group of older journeymen cobbled together that are overachieving.
There’s a bit of a tendency for people to create zero-sum scenarios when it comes to Arsenal. 8th place twice, instant sacking. Losing the semi of the Europa League, instant sacking. Losing the first three games of this season, instant sacking. Now we’re already seeing the rumbling of ‘no top 4 this season,’ instant sacking. It sounds good to chat like that because it makes people seem like they’re ruthless, but we’ve seen plenty of times how dumb that sort of approach has been.
Zero-sum management of a football club has seen two projects fail miserably.
Pochettino over at Spurs told Daniel Levy there would be a dip that they’d need to manage and a rebuild that would have to happen. The dip happened, the fans turned, Levy sacked the guy that had talent them to the Champions League because he couldn’t stomach the reality of the cycle that was predicted. He then hired a zero-sum manager, that failed. Now he’s on his 3rd manager since Pochettino, another zero-sum manager that is saying if he doesn’t get what he needs, he’ll walk. Spurs still have no philosophy, no strategy, and a slim hope of moving the club forward this season.
United had a similar issue, but it started with a transfer. They thought their was only one option last summer, to sign Ronaldo to stop City moving on him. He didn’t fit the profile of the project, he rattled the internal squad hierarchy, and he didn’t fit the modern system that had them in 2nd the season before. OGS suffered because of the chaos Ronaldo brought to United. He was sacked, then they hired Rangnick who wasn’t matched to anything they had been trying to do in the past. Looking back, was it fair to bin OGS for the club signing a nostalgia superstar? Who knows… but now they are rolling with a manager that isn’t right, potentially moving to a totally new system, because they didn’t have faith to look at the true root cause of their issues.
Top 6 is the target for Arsenal this season, anything extra is a bonus. We’re not in the race for top 4 because ‘everyone else is shit’ we’re there because we’ve been incredibly consistent this season and we deserve our place there. If we don’t hit the level this season, it’ll be because of experience, the lack of a functional striker, and maybe injuries. But we’ll have the platform, the players will have progressed massively, and we’ll have a culture that is perfectly set to absorb new bodies into it this summer. We can’t keep indulging the ‘I’m not convinced crowd’ because if you aren’t convinced by what you’re seeing now, you are too deeply entrenched in a weird agenda, or you just don’t get the game.
We have 13 cup finals left this season. Watford is the next. We’ve seen what can happen to teams with massive firepower. Arteta needs to make sure the players don’t fall into the same trap the United crew did yesterday.
Just a quick thought on Chelsea and football in general. Isn’t it amazing how fucked the moral compass is in the Premier League? You have Putin’s right credit card putting Chelsea into a trust to avoid UK sanctions, and sections of their fanbase celebrating his intelligence. You have clubs with human rights abusers as owners standing in solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Sky Sports have a journalist parrotting propaganda about Abramovich designed to confuse people. Honestly, how did we let money take us to this position? The idea that it was touch and go whether Russia could host the Champions League final tells you all you need to know. Grim, grim, grim.
Before I go, I wanted to wish Arseblog a happy 20th birthday. Writing about Arsenal every day, like he has, with so much quality and thought, with so much consistency… is an incredible achievement. His work inspired so many of us in the Arsenal creator community and he continues to set the benchmark for us all. If you get the chance, check out his 20 episode podcast series he pulled together, one for every year he’s been in commission. He invited me on to talk about 2018, a remarkable year for what happened and what did NOT happen.
Then when you’re done with that, tune in to The Arsenal Opinion Podcast with me and Johnny. I am very hungover, but the content was good.
Information is power, I’m sure there’s plenty of illegal and morally questionable things our security services turn a blind eye too. It’s better to sit back and gather the whole picture, than to waste leverage when we don’t need it. Keep your friends close, and your enemies even closer. It’s better to lead our enemies into a false sense of security, than to make them paranoid, and force them away. If we want to push for change in Saudi Arabia, then we have a better chance of doing that, when they’re close to us, than if we alienate them completely.… Read more »
Auba with another good goal
Germany has a new chancellor from the end of last year – Olaf Scholz. One might speculate that he waited for Merkel and maybe Trump to no longer be in power.
Nigel – Yep and we will all be paying the price now! Sad times
5 goals in 4 starts and counting.
Auba seems to have just wanted a change of scenery. 5 goals already. Seems Barcelona’s gamble is paying off. But it was right for us to let him go.
I’m so happy for Auba. After the Wolves win, he posted (in Spanish) great goals, great game…. Go team!
Great guy.
Barcelona Tom,
All reports on la liga goalscoring are considered in poor taste, control yourself please.
“Just wanted a change” equals to Arteta finding an excuse to kick him from the team and club. When he was scoring goals game in, game out everything was perfect, the moment he stopped scoring /because Arteta set us up in way that makes Auba look bad/ our manager embarrassed his player and bin him to never play an Arsenal game again showing him as the ultimate unprofessional footballer of all time. Who else in football was binned for being late for training, like ever?! It is what it is. If we manage top 4 all will be good. If… Read more »
Barcelona is playing in a similar way than Arsenal. Auba is scoring, he downtools when he was here just like Ozil did.
And he is just making PR stunts, as Ozil did before him.
Habesha I agree. Letting Auba go wasn’t just about him as a player (he was lazy with a bad attitude) but it was about the club culture. The club had made a decision to put an end to the problem players and implement non-negotiables for the better of the ‘team’. The team captain failed and let his team mates down and us fans. There is no I in team. Losing him has improved the team not weakened it. Thanks for what he did but no thanks for the bad attitude and poor on field performances. But any fan who still… Read more »
Ye, Guendouzi won a penalty earlier today. He’s on 2 goals, 4 assists, incl the pen in the last 6 games.
What a bunch of waffle here regarding Auba, PR stunts, attitude. Plain and simple he had issues with Arteta and the coaching staff and it was clearly reported there were no issues with players but the generational manager couldn’t handle him after all Au a is no teenager like Guen. If we miss 4th that will be the issue and judgement of the present executive duds. You just don’t lose your footballing skill one day move to another club and then score 5 goals in the next 4 games. If he wanted to show up Arteta’s none managerial and player… Read more »
Afcf You said…. No, hopefully they freeze the Russians assets and Chelsea get what they deserve. Mere moments later, you said…. Too much virtue signalling today with nothing to back it up. The ‘Look at me, I’m so nice…’ is usually a sure sign you’re dealing with a serial hypocrite who is far from nice. Are you seriously thick? How the actual fuck can you engage in what people like you categorise as ‘virtue signalling’ and then criticise yourself for doing it? Unbelievable. Who’s the ‘serial hypocrite’?I’ve read a lot of foreign policy from all over the place in my… Read more »
Alternatively, if you’re on the pop again and writing this, say so and your shit can just be ignored til you’re back in the realm of rationality.
The only player that Arsenal has let go that should be with us is Saliba all the other ones has been good riddance. Emi was 10 games wonder, he is now in his real level, just as we saw him during 10 YEARS. Guen is doing decently in a poor league, but he is still been criticized for be a liability at defense. Willock, the guy is a non entity at Newcastle we robbed them. Torreira is a ghost Mustafi, Kola and Kos are the 3 stooges. Saliba is the only player that has been doing great. Auba is a… Read more »
And please don’t delude yourself with “we are better off without Auba” as of we don’t need goals from the attackers. So either Laca will receive a miraculous regeneration and starts scoring instead of missing or the midfield will make up for the needed goals for 4th.
I would have been more sympathetic if in the Jan TW someone on loan would have come in and played their little hearts out wanting to be part of Arsenal, but only the Arteta fan boys can’t see that because they are deluded in AKB.
We are not better with Auba scoring version, but he just doesnt want to play for us anymore. Thats reality, he was desinterested.
Late to trainings, late to the most important Derby, missing sitters, not pressing, not running. What is the point of that?
And yes Arteta is to blame too for not have the skill to convince the player and takr the best of him, he just decides to cut him. The biggest problem with Arteta is his very poor man managment off the pitch.
Killroy
We’ve taken 22/30 points since Aubameyang was dropped, we’re playing reasonably well.
You seem really angry we’re doing quite well at the moment
Red Bearer
””’CG – Yes Wenger was class and understood about doing things properly. The EPL is corrupt and remains financed by the riches of these unsavoury nations””’
A. Wenger had to contend with the oligarchs and this UAE mob, – who tried to buy/target every decent player we had- but Wenger still produced the goods season in , season out.
His race has now run- its now up to the wannabes- to do something similar……
……And , I am still waiting……
Barca’s got some great young talent in Pedri and Gavi
The haters are out again… the shine has come off our hard fought win already.
Nothing makes Les miserables happy.
Definitely not an exciting young Arsenal, on a good run of form. Winning and growing in quality.
That only threatens their past foolish statements about Arteta.
You know they hate that moment when we win and Arteta walks out to celebrate and congratulate the boys. You can’t even fully enjoy what most of the fan base does, so embarrassed for being wrong.
It sucks to be haters.
Great podcast Pedro.
I’m in the same camp as Johnny. We need to achieve results and we can’t make up excuses if we don’t. But I also firmly believe that we will. We’ve improved across the board and it doesn’t look like a fluke. Kudos to Mikel for that.
Sad to see Bielsa go. I’d probably have one heart attack per week if he was our manager but he made the PL a more interesting league. I’m a cynic myself but I can respect a purist.
All this Auba talk is so boring. Some people don’t seem to understand that performance is influenced by contextual factors. He now plays in a more dominant team in a slower league where there is no counter press and defenders aren’t allowed to rough striker up. Of course he’s scoring. Doesn’t change the fact that his output with Arsenal has been decreasing for two years and he couldn’t physically do what’s expected offensively or defensively.
LoveSausage
Good comments. Bielsa’s Achilles heel was his inability to change the way he played. Opposing managers could plan with predictability. As for his language issues, I do not think that helps when you’re struggling.
Fabian Ruiz with a pretty special matchwinner in the last minute of stoppage today for Napoli. Hope there’s some truth in our links with him
Kalvin Phillips sent out a beautiful tweet thanking Bielsa… and word was they had some issues this season. Maybe the stories weren’t true, or he’s just super classy.
Every manager says he takes it game by game, but in truth every manager looks for a trend, particularly at the end of the season. An upward trend that he can foster, a downward trend that he can reverse. Something that offers a degree of predictability.
Of the five clubs in the mixer for 3rd/4th place, Arsenal are the one on an upward trend. With the others it is game by game, lose, win, draw. As some one said, long may the trend continue……….
Is this the same Auba that was our Striker for the first half of the season, couldn’t hit a barn door and needed to be dropped? It seemed like everyone was waiting for him to discover his form again , week after week after more infuriating week. Would he ever have found this form in the PL ,with this Club? We’ll never know now, but he needed dropping, and I can’t imagine that would have sat comfortably. North of 300k off the wage bill for 18 months , and he’s not going to score against us. (Please). Not a perfect… Read more »
Auba was not good last season either. Now he has motivation. To prove a point
(In a less difficult league too).
What was his motivation after signing the big contract with us?
Choosing some new Lamborghinis.
AFC,
I have my doubts that those language issues were real. I suspect that the interpreter was mostly there to give him time to think when answering a question. Rumour has it he talked to his players just fine.
Either way, the man could never bring himself to compromise. But he’s the sort of manager that transforms players and I’m convinced that many on that squad will go on to achieve great things. I hope we get to see him again in the PL.
Who cares about Auba? La Liga is not what it once was and he couldnt hack it with us. Not to mention we got 300k/week off the wage bill. Absolute no brainer that no purple patch will change.
LoveSausage
I read somewhere he was paranoid about being misquoted because he wasn’t confident about his English. No idea if true. Some players thrived under him, Philips in particular so if they go down, he’ll be picked up.
Venga, Dani
Spot on comment. Everyone knows we had no choice but to get shot. Ruthless but right decision for the benefit of the entire club.
AFC,
Yeah, I read that too.
I wouldn’t mind picking up a few players from that squad. Philips and Rafinha look like they were made for our system. Whoever gets Philips will get a player very similar to Declan Rice for a more reasonable price tag.
ArtetaHaterAubameyangUpdates. com
Or just type Legrove. com
Yep Philip and Rafhina are good players.
Just landed, cannot believe Chelsea swapped out the one of the best keepers on the planet for Kepa only for him to not save 11 penalties then miss one.
What a classic.
LS, I think the language issues were overblown, read that he speaks pretty good English. Think injuries, a poor summer, and a bad run done him in in the end. A shame, he made the Premier League more colorful.
LS
To be fair, the managerial roundabout suggests he’ll be back again.
Pedro,
Their injury situation has been insane. Part of that is probably down to Bielsa and his system. That 1-on-1 defence is absolutely relentless. Players are bound to break down.
Hope you had a good time in London btw. You definitely picked the right game.
LS, you are right, that bang bang approach has it’s limits when it comes to the bodies of the players.
Almuniasaynomore, where are your little stories everyone loves to read? Do they only come out when we’re doing badly? Haven’t seen them lately?
… or is it in poor taste to ask?
Love Sausage
Another good point. They’ve been really unlucky with injuries to key players. It’s a demanding system that isn’t a lot of fun. Players will get fed up of that, imho, and you only have to drop 5%. Tactically his system lacked flexibility.
AFC, think it’s also clear that not many teams can handle losing their best players.
They’ve been missing Bamford and Phillips… and there’s no way of covering for that if you are a small team.
Pedro
“We have 13 cup finals left this season”
__________________________________________
I am also counting every match. There are 14 left….
AFC,
Klopp likes to talk about how it’s important to refresh his squads because players get tired of him. Probably because he’s similar to Bielsa with his demands. So was Poch but instead of refreshing the squad Levy refreshed the manager. The biggest favours they could have made us😬
Pedro
Agree, any team loses key players they’re in trouble. Look at what happened to Liverpool. Philips is crucial to the way they play, he was irreplaceable., It’s such a demanding system though it beasts players and ceases to be fun when results go south. They get relegated and they’ll lose quite a few players I suspect. Brutal league.
LS
It’s like training sessions, you have to keep things fresh. Players get bored.
Levy is like all the Manager Obsessives, they just don’t get it. Sometimes you need patience and to understand where you are and what needs to be done. Stepping stones. Pointless setting an unrealistic expectation and throwing a strop when it doesn’t get met. It’s about the end game and sustainability. Lucky for us Levy is a Manager Obsessive who thinks all you need is the fabled manager who guarantees success with his little bag of magic beans.
Nelson, good shout!
Just listened to Pedro’s podcast with Andrew at Arseblog – two of my favourite Arsenal bloggers. Maybe you guys should do podcasts together more often. Maybe you could invite Andrew to the Arsenal Opinion
It is so funny reading Auba couldn’t run, press etc. This very season, Arteta was praising Auba for the above qualities. Laca, Nkeithah and saka have all missed open goals since Auba was dropped. Additionally, after Auba was dropped none of our striker was banging in several goals. Our current system for all the shots and statistics, we can see strikers struggle with it. In Pedro’s podcast with Perry Grooves, he correlated Auba’s drop in form with Arteta’s handling of the Spurs match lateness. He said, after that incidence something changed. Auba has his faults and Arteta has his own… Read more »
Fuxk you, Putin, for making me support Liverpool for the first time ever.
A top four run and some nice signings in the summer looks a pretty good shout now.
I just hope the madness of the last few years comes to a satisfactory end so that we can sit back and enjoy it properly.
‘Now Arteta will need to buy a new striker….’ No shit Sherlock! If you want to buy a striker( a player) a ‘cheque book is mighty useful. PEA’s run of poor form was not a couple of months it had gone on far longer than that. As someone said earlier, he’s one of those players who doesn’t stay at one club for ages, he moves on when it makes sense for him and the selling club. It’s unreasonable to suggest Arteta contributed to the breakdown in relationship with PEA but to suggest it was a mistake to let him go… Read more »
Now that Roman’s in the Gloaming, 🔝3 is within reach. But 4th will do me. But even though The Arsenal is now front & centre for CL footie next year, it ain’t over till the fat lady has sung. No I don’t mean that Tottenham shiela Adele😂
Arteta did contribute
I’m not sure why they don’t just go by a players foot when judging the offside. For one it would make it easier to judge and also what we have now is many goals being disallowed because of an armpit, backside, knee being adjudged in an offside position. At present , a player can have his arm up calling for the ball and be giving offside despite the rest of his body being well onside. It’s ruining the game , how many goals are now given offside because an armpit is adjudged to be offside.. . Keep it simple ,… Read more »
Alex Ferguson once said “If you don’t change your team every 5 years, then they’ll change you”
Ferguson didn’t just build new teams, he’d regularly change up his coaching staff as well.
Rich
True enough. You refresh because you need players to be at it and not get stale. For me we’ve learned a lesson about handing out big contracts to players near the end of their careers. Mind you it was a bit easier for Fergie, he had the biggest club in the world and the biggest cheque book. He could attract and afford whoever the hell he wanted. It’s harder now especially for us as we have to get the profiling and scouting spot on. . However, the principal is correct.
AFC Forever Where we’ve got to get smarter is with our contracts and how much we pay our players It’s almost impossible to receive a fee for declining players earning £200k p/w, very few clubs can afford to match those types of wages, and the ones that can, won’t want our cast offs. It’s impossible to get fees for squad players like Mustafi, Kolasinac, Sokratis, when these players are on a reported £90-£120k p/w They’re also reluctant to go anywhere, because they’ll never get contracts that come close to matching what they’re earning If we want to gradually churn our… Read more »
Rich
I don’t disagree with that.
Yes Pedro having the youngest team and coach does mean something. It means we are very inexperienced and at the end of season we will have to fight tooth and nail to hold onto a few of them.
Benkind I agree with most of that post. Not buying a striker moreorless was a statement that we can give this season a miss but as you suggest new year will be even tougher competition.
Awful spineless decision from a corrupt organisation. Fifa
The football union of Russia is still Russia!
No country will play them.
The conclusion that we made a mistake by not buying a sriker in January is football manager mentality at its finest. Suggesting we are giving this season ‘ a miss’ is also an odd statement.
The Bard The consequences of having good players, is that they’ll be in demand, and have plenty of options. It’s the same as having a pretty wife, that’s just the way of the world. I’d much rather have players who other clubs managers and fans would love to sign, than players who nobody else wanted. Man City wanted Kane 28 last summer for £120million, they couldn’t get their top target, and decided to go without a striker, rather than compromise Chelsea spent £98 million on Lukaku, who’s so far failed to move the needle, they’d have been better off giving… Read more »
Pedro
Lovely to see your comments about Arseblog. I like balancing his quiet wit with your ruthlessness!
Bob, please. We could have loaned someone, no? There were Jovic rumors, probably other players that the media didn’t know about. Or get a good plan B striker that we could have used longer term. Weghorst for example who moved for 12m one month ago. The money wouldn’t have hurt us, cause it’s nothing, and the player would have given us another option when chasing the game for example. It should have been a simple question – are we equipped, in the CF position, to go all the way till the end of the season and fight for top 4,… Read more »
I assume that anyone speaking of buying a striker also has the loan option in their mind as well as buying a secondary CF that is nothing similar to what we have. For me, we had to get someone in, and we made a huge gamble that none of Laca + another of our wingers will get long term injured in about 4 months of football. It could pay off, but it might spectacularly backfire. I feel like the insane luck that we have with Manure + spuds both failing time and again, and how about 67-69 pts will be… Read more »
Raptora If we’d signed Weghorst you’d have been spitting bullets We only need to go back to your comments from last summers window to know that, where as per usual you were throwing regularly temper tantrums…. Believing we shouldn’t be spending £12mill on Weghorst for 6 months, then be stuck with his wages for another 3-4 years, isn’t a pro-Arteta stance, it’s a pro common sense one. We’ve got Lacazette, Nketiah, Martinelli Pepe, who can all play down the middle, we’ve got Smith Rowe who could play as a false 9 Weghorst has a goal contribution every 207 minutes in… Read more »
Rich: “We’ve got Lacazette, Nketiah, Martinelli Pepe, who can all play down the middle, we’ve got Smith Rowe who could play as a false 9” And in the end Arteta would play Laca absolutely no matter what. Also Martinelli, Pepe and ESR have a total of how many CF games together? 5? Arteta would rather injure Laca but give another player a chance. Says how much he rates the rest of our players there, don’t you think?! I said that Weghorst, or someone similar, could have been a long term option in attack, similar to what we had with Giroud… Read more »
Just a secondary stat though. Not that important, I know.
I was in support of keeping Giroud + Auba. Laca should never have been bought. An attack with Giroud and Auba would have been quite complete and much better than Auba + Laca. I was never against having a plan B in our attack which someone like Giroud always gives. So you can go back in the posts as much as you’d like and you would find nothing about me being against a taller striker in addition to a more mobile one. I watched Weghorst in the Euro. He’s a decent player. Very capable of doing the job. But he’s… Read more »
Bobn16: of course buying a striker is difficult but if the club were all in they could have taken a loan. In my opinion they werent/ aren’t all in. The rational presumably is missing out on top 4 isn’t a big deal this year. Nothing complex about that argument.
Pedro I am against what is happening in Ukraine. People are dying in altar of politics. The leaders are now talking in Belarus to come to a peaceful solution. Couldnt they have done the same 4 days ago and saved all those lives and livelyhood. Politics is supreme. Politicians keep their hands warm on burning bodies. As for the current crisis, like many other crisis in the past 3 decades, it is the US which is causing it. there was no need for supporting a coup in 2015 to dismantle the government and INSTALL a friendly government in a country… Read more »
Rich “Lacazette has a goal involvement every 151 minutes in the PL his season.” Not bad Nketiah a goal involvement every 80 minutes this season in the premier league. Rich, i know you are a fan of Eddie , but i will never tire of producing figures that back up my opinion of Eddie Nketiah a goal involvement every 78 minutes all competitions. As we all know , it is more difficult to hit the ground running without regular football and Eddie has played in fits and starts 10/15 minutes with the odd game in the cup . Taking this… Read more »
Raptora Why swap one declining striker in exchange for another? We’ve got players who can make an impact from the bench, Nketiah assisted Pepe for our equaliser against Wolves Pepe was heavily involved in the build up for our winner. I’d have loved us to sign Vlahovic, but I’d rather we gave opportunities to Nketiah + Pepe, than sign someone that was unlikely to move the needle Are we really going to compete with City, Liverpool + Chelsea over 38 games, over the next 3 years, with Weghorst as our second choice striker? Are we going to compete if we… Read more »
“ laughing boy” bangs in a few ( even offhis arse) in la liga &his fanboys are creaming themselves with another opportunity to use as a stick to beat Arteta with.Every little chance.It’s laughable.The guy who is even able to score with his arse in la liga sat on it while he was playing for us.Good luck to him.We thank him for his service.Now move on.
Rich, I’m perfectly aware that there aren’t many top CFs around. I’ve said it many, many times in the recent months. Benzema, Lewa, Ronaldo just a few examples of old players still being the leading CFs in top clubs. Juve, until now, had Morata for instance. The CFs situation is that bad. I’ve also downplayed the importance of CFs as long as the players around have goals in them. City and Liverpool being a prime example. I’m just terrified of the opportunity to miss top 4 just because our CF is goal impotent and 3-5 goals extra could be the… Read more »
Raptora
Maybe we’ll take a punt on Leao or Gakpo, and hope they’re players who can adapt quickly, and are on the cusp of becoming consistent performers and scorers at the top level.
I wouldn’t be against giving Eddie the No9, or begin to integrate Balogun.
Who would you go for?
Anyone that uses the rationale of £12m is nothing doesn’t have a fucking clue about football or business.
Spending £12m on someone that doesn’t move the needle means taking that money away from a proper target that does in the summer.
Raptora you’re very naive and clueless the more you speak.
How can you talk of “victory for karma” when people are dying every moment in the distant East. I suspect you really believe it and some of you even get joy out of it. Some keyboard warriors…
Rich, It’s a tough one. The club actually did well identifying Vlahovic as the next potentially top quality CF. Sadly, he wasn’t meant to be but at least we tried. I had a long post month and a half ago with decent names in it. It had Gouiri, David, DCL, Isak and a few up and coming CFs that I don’t really remember. I know Samesong is a fan of Brereton-Diaz. There’s Osimhen, Schick, En-Nesyri among others. Still, neither of them is the finished deal or is a perfect scenario at the rates being mentioned. Vlahovic was as close as… Read more »
Rambinho,
Pablo Mari as our 6th CB at £12.6m made sense I guess. Mr rationale on display here.
Nigel (in regards to the mess Arteta inherited)
“That team was going to fall further down the table over the course of years. No top manager was going to fix that.”
So no top manager could do the job yet absolute amatuer hour Arteta could?
Some sound logic there.
More logical to think that if we got a world class manager, we’d have already been back in Europe, or better still never fully dropped out.
Positive Pete.
Give it a rest.
Auba disliked Arteta and vice versa. It’s done.
If we’d have had a man manager at the helm he may have still been scoring for us. He isn’t and that’s that.
We will be better off without him under our current manager that is for sure.
SAGG, One issue some of us have with the current management is their inability to consistently get respectable compensation for the players leaving us. Even the ones we can objectively agree, were not good enough. Of all the players on your list, Arteta is only responsible extracting good value out of Martinez. Emi is definitely having a bad season now but at least he was able to put himself in contention for (and actually win) the Copa America the season before. Joe Willock was the one who sold Joe Willock to Newcastle. You may not have noticed but he’s no… Read more »
What’s pablo Mari got to do with buying weighorst? PM was bought in to improve the defence. He wasn’t good enough but they thought he would be good enough. Weighorst isn’t good enough and they know he never will be….lesson learned.
Don’t expect you to understand the basics tho
Raptora – Laca was already at the club when we bought Auba!
Northbanker, I know.
No point in bringing back past decisions but for me Auba is clear of Laca.
We should have bought Auba in the Summer instead of buying Laca or we should have tried selling Laca the moment we bought Auba.
What happened was the worst that could have happened as we decided to sell Giroud who still had place in our club imo. Auba playing off of Giroud would have been quite something as they were, on paper, absolutely able to play together.
Whether we need 2 strikers in the Summer or not will depend on what happens next with Pepe. I am convinced he’s going to be the weapon to get 4th spot if he plays centrally.
If that happens we probably need only one striker. I don’t think it matters whether Eddie stays or not. Personally I’d like him to stay under a new contract and go on loan to get a proper season of football under his belt. Then we can see what we really have there and whether we can use him or at least sell for top dollar..
Rap – you need to move on mate. Auba has gone so he’s irrelevant. Laca will soon be the same. It’s all about who we need now
I’ve heard 2 people in the past few days refer to Arteta as a cheque book manager. To me, that’s been guys like Pep, Mourinho,.. actually anybody that manages Man City, .. all the way back to Mancini. Also Chelsea, Madrid, United , where they throw around the biggest money. To be fair, many of them are great managers aside from that, but they’d rack up a lot less trophies without the money. Of the bunch, I feel like Pep would be the most likely to improve Any decent players that cost less, because he’s a teacher, with a strong… Read more »
Nigel – most managers are cheque book managers to some extent. It’s what they’re spending on. Arteta had the courage to focus on young players that might have increased the pressure on him further if they failed to settle. That was a lesson he’s taken some time to learn but given his success with young players and failure with senior players, the path ahead will hopefully be a lot clearer to him.
IAT-Robbie. Its an interesting issue you raise about selling players for decent money. It does seem as though its a lot more complex these days. It seems ‘sitting it out’ is a popular option even if you have 2 years to run on your contract. Think Winston Bogarde at Chelsea. You could counter that by signing some players on long contracts but who would actually sign one. The players have the upper hand these days, Im not too sure what you can do about it.
Positive Pete, Auba probably won’t continue scoring at this rate but that doesn’t discount from the fact that we’re paying for Barcelona to have that privilege. We are literally the football equivalent of a man having to pay spousal support to an ex-wife to live in a better neighborhood with her new partner. I’m not a divorcee nor have I ever been married but I don’t think any solicitor would call that a good deal. Just because we’re supporters of AFC doesn’t mean all of us have to go into turbo-spin mode to justify its ludicrous decisions. What is laughable… Read more »
“Maybe I’m mistaken but I’m a football supporter not a cult member.”
Thats just it IAT-Robbie, it is over the top from some folk in regards to Arteta.
The usual posters here just typing nonsense and going around in circles. Thanks for the laughs 🙄
Leftside, you are a member of a cult, the one that has shit on Arsenal all season that now takes offence to the fans enjoying themselves at this moment.
It is very telling that the people that were the biggest critiques are out in force talking about a lucky win against Wolves, Auba scoring goals, and other fans being cultists for defending a manager that is now doing the job they said he would.
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