How are you today?
I’m in New York on a work thing, so I am going to be low on posting at the moment, but… when the post land, they land, you know what I’m saying?
I just want to clear up a couple of things from my expose on the Premier League fixtures because there were a lot of angry Spurs fans and there were a few Arsenal fans that cannot stand to see data that in any way looks like it might harm their naive view of how the sporting world works.
- We didn’t finish in the top 4 last season for a whole host of reasons that I have covered in some detail. If you think I was saying the only reason we failed was due to the fixtures, you are wrong and likely projecting onto the work.
- Marginal gains are a thing. If you don’t understand that, you don’t get modern sport. Clubs will try and edge out advantages all over the place. Liverpool don’t let key players go on international duty because of ‘injury’, Arsenal do, Liverpool end the season with Trent on the pitch, Arsenal end the season with Tavares at left-back. We had a whole conversation about the weirdos that thought removing mayo from the canteen was a marginal gain because Conte is a genius. So when we look at fixtures, don’t tell me that’s not a marginal gain opportunity.
- Finally, the key message: Arsenal drop out of Europe for the first time in 25 years and we didn’t face a single team that had played a European game. There’s a 3.4% chance of that happening. You have to ask questions about that, especially when you know the random fixture generator has human intervention involved. Calling it ‘luck’ is to sit on your hands. The same people telling you not to be curious about hard data were those that were telling you to put on your big boy boots when we didn’t have the Brentford game cancelled. What happened after they said the games couldn’t be cancelled? The games got cancelled when other clubs screamed louder. Everything can be influenced in football, we’ve seen it time and time again, Arsenal should be banging the table on this ‘freak’ roll of the dice and demanding it does not happen again.
Anyway, thanks to all the fans that carried that message.
ONTO STRIKER THINGS:
Arsenal are apparently kicking the Scamacca approach into overdrive. The story seems to have swung from ‘he’s angling for a move to Juve’ to ‘Dortmund and Arsenal want him.’ You would have to imagine Arsenal have more sway than Dortmund, we can pay more, give him a better profile, and we’re more prestige.
I like this striker a lot. He has all the bits we’re looking for, he fast, he can can score in lots of different ways, he has a fierce ball striker, and he’s only young. What is very interesting to me is whether we’re spending less on our main striker so we can afford someone like Jesus to give us more end product in the forward line. The interesting thing for Jesus is there’s quite a bit of competition at Arsenal for the spaces his likes to occupy. Still, we need a squad more than ever next season, so there will be loads of minutes.
Bukayo Saka is apparently on the radar of Manchester City. I think this is a familiar pattern that comes from his agent who seeded that Eddie was attracting interest from Chelsea and Liverpool. It’s all a game to get his client max money this summer. Let’s be real here, it’s absolutely deserved, we just need to make sure we’re very protected so we don’t lose him for nothing at some point.
Right, short one today. If you are Patreon contributor, Johnny has dropped a little beauty into the feed today where he talks about the next 5 players in his top 25 players. To get the exclusive good content, click below.
Always the same with Arsenal. Amateurs at buying and selling players. Edu has known all season what we need so should have everything wrapped up waiting for the window yet here we go again as always with the bullshit of being snubbed or outbid for players. In all honesty if any of you were a top player would you be stupid enough to come and join these penny pinching jokers running things.
Not easy for Arsenal to pry away players for whose services multiple clubs are interested.
If Chelsea and Spurs are really interested in Jesus, you can understand the challenge Arsenal might face in luring him away.
Tielemans looks all but done but still you never know whether he is getting other offers too.
We are not Real or Bayern. We neither have a charismatic and reputed manager nor we have CL to offer. We are not the most appealing destination for good players, it’s a fact.
TR7
We have an exciting youth project ; )
Thank fuck Nketiah is on the released list. Now we can open the coffers and buy a high quality striker and winger whoever they may be will be superior well rounded players than a weak fox in the box poacher who doesn’t convince me he will score when the pressure is on or against elite teams(Liverpool and City). Fuming Darwin Nunez is going to Liverpool. He would be perfect for us. Nketiah is too old to be an understudy. That place goes to Balogun. Funny we keep treating him like he’s a kid. He’s not at the level if we… Read more »
Izzo “Thank fuck Nketiah is on the released list. Now we can open the coffers and buy a high quality striker and winger whoever they may be will be superior well rounded players than a weak fox in the box poacher who doesn’t convince me he will score when the pressure is on or against elite teams(Liverpool and City).” Ha ha, dumb comment …we haven’t scored against liverpool in the last 6 games and scored only 2 v city in the last 5.. I notice that you didn’t want to include chelsea as “elite, possibly due to the fact that… Read more »
Pierre I am talking about the PL Chelsea were crap this past season with the Lukaku debacle. Nketiah is not leading the line at Arsenal over a season. He should go to a lower position placed team to do that. You know I’m right otherwise why the hell are we trying to buy a striker??? He is 23 and you think he wants to play another season rooted on the bench in the games that matter? His time has passed and Balogun should take his spot. You know that why he was sent out on loan.
Izzo,
Eddie scored against Chelsea. Last year against Liverpool he put VVD under pressure that resulted in a goal.
He can do everything that Gabriel Jesus can do while being much more clinical.
He will become an elite striker. Once he is in a team with a manager who trust him he will not stop scoring.
How many goal winning goals(literally what it takes to lead the line) did Nketiah score? And against what teams? Nottingham Forest. Sigh… For all his exploits after being given a chance he still couldn’t score when it matters to secure CL footy. Follow him to his next club along with Ozil and Willock. No idea why you like and big up these clearly weak players. You can have all the talent but mentality and application/aggression is everything if you’re gonna cut it at the elite level.
I like the Raphinha rumour. Of course it will depend on the tranfer fee and wage, but replacing numerically Pepe by Raphinha make sense. Both he and Sako could rotate wings during matches and provide elite passing and dribbling.
Was worried when I saw Eddie’s name among released players. I thought “what are we smoking at Arsenal, why are we getting rid of our only decent striker”. Glad we are keeping him and negotiations are on going.
In an era where the not so prolific Osihmen is going for 100 million, and the not proven outside Portugal Nunez also going for the same amount. It would be madness for us to act as though we don’t need a guy like Eddie.
I don’t see it. I don’t doubt his ability as a fox in the box but that is not enough at the elite level. He isn’t complete in his position to lead the line. Why isn’t he in the England setup? Shouldn’t he be at the world cup? 23 years old. Brighton and Palace is his level and thats not a bad thing its just not CL PL challenging level which is what we need to compete. He clearly doesnt want to play second fiddle and he’s not gonna be our number one striker hence why i keep saying better… Read more »
Nketiah showed in 12 starts what Lacazette couldn’t in 120 starts. Hunger, clinical finishing and just generally knowing his way around the 18 box.
Eddie sign this thing please.
TR7 Absolutely. The transfer situation is more complex these days. If we go in for a player the agent will then alert other clubs and hopefully force an auction to push the price and wages up. So there is a bit of bluff going on which is why we maybe havent heard much. Im sure Jesus’s agent is waiting to see who comes up with the best deal. The players have the clubs over a barrel.
Hope he leaves. If he thinks he’s going to he No.1 he’ll be massively disappointed when he finds himself on the bench again. Unless he’s happy playing cup games and being a sub.
Izzo Where is this elite level that you are referring to because it certainly ain’t real at the moment. Since Ronaldo, Neymar,Suarez,RVP, Messi, etc retired or slow down remarkably, elite level has been disappearing in football. Other than maybe Haaland, Kane, Mbappe, Lewandowski there is no elite level in the striker department in football at the moment. Guy like Lautaro Martinez, Son,Mane, are the best of the very best of this era. Really good players but not elite. Tammy Abraham, Jesus, Depay, Toney, Lautaro Martinez etc if these guys are the present standard then Nketiah is nothing to be sniffed.… Read more »
Habesha GoonerJune 10, 2022 09:20:34 Zacharse Okay. I understand you want a different profile of striker. A big bully to be exact. But these types of players don’t have a transformative scoring records either. Tammy Abraham, in his best ever season in Serie A , scored 17 league goals. 23 over all and half of the 6 goals he scored came in the conference league. Scamacca hit 16 goals, David hit 15 goals and Toney hit 12 goals playing as a striker all season.Those are the big bully type of strikers and none of them hit more than 17 in… Read more »
wow im shocked eddie hasn’t signed.really hope that happens!
If we’re looking at Jesus and Scamacca because we think Eddie may still leave this makes more sense and I can get behind that more.
But if Eddie signs then only one other striker should be bought and buying Jesus as a winger when he doesn’t score that much seems a waste of money
I don’t know that Eddie will become elite but I’m pretty confident he will be a very decent PL striker. And considering he’s already ours for free it would be a great shame to lose him I’m not convinced that most of the strikers we’ve been linked to are any better – or will be much better than Eddie if Eddie is given regular game time and confidence to develop. So will he be a 30 goal a season striker? No idea really. Could he score 15 league goals? Yes. If he gets plenty of games he will score at… Read more »
I don’t know what Paul Merson is on, but if he thinks that Chelsea will entertain the idea of selling Lukaku to us for £60 millions, I want some.
That is the price they were willing to sell Tammy Abraham to us last summer and everybody would take Lukaku over Tammy Abraham.
@Naija you’ve listed players and he’s not at their level. Same age with Lautaro and can you say you’d say no to Lautaro to keep Eddie??? Even you are not 100%convinced of him now yet claim he will become elite. At this stage and age he should at minimum be in the England squad and he is not. You all are overhyping him because he’s Hale End. Whatever there’s better strikers out there at his age 23-25 and you know it. No shame wanting better. My point is Eddie wants to be starter and I’m saying a BIG FAT NO… Read more »
Pierre we all get your itching to have Eddie be the number 1 guy so you can likely troll the site with how right you were in calling it. You really fetich a player when it suits, fair play you’ve got much right on Eddie but lets not get carried away. What he’s done has played himself into contention for a new contract. I’ll go on the record with if Arteta doesn’t bring in another CF option this will be his last season at Arsenal. This is not an overall indictment on Eddie but to think he’s going to carry… Read more »
Izzo
I never claimed that Eddie would be elite. In fact, I was arguing for the opposite. I was saying the strikers available for us to buy aren’t elite anyway so we should keep Eddie as the options aren’t that much better.
If we are going with 2 strikers, just keep Eddie sign a second guy. Simples.
I don’t mind the idea of having 2 big boys in the center. In Wenger’s most successful teams we used to have Vieira + Petit and Vieira + Gilberto Silva at the core of our midfield and we were anything but struggling for goals or to play good football. Partey + Bissouma will dominate games and will allow our attackers to play with freedom and without fear that we’ll concede if they lose the ball. When we need something different we could also change it up, but plan A with Partey and Bissouma will be really strong in both phases… Read more »
Also Lautaro has been a starter for Inter for at least 3 years now. Nketiah has been playing third fiddle to Laca AND Auba in that period. Barely started games.
If he gets the trust of the manager and start getting starts in games, he will improve and prove some people wrong.
Winger is kind of a bonus imo. It’s not like Arteta used Pepe at all, so if we throw money there he will cement one of our other players like Marti and ESR to the bench completely.
I prefer Toney and Iheanacho to Jesus as far as EPL strikers are concerned.
TR7
Toney would be relatively cheap also. What 30M?
Think he’s on like 20k a week at Brentford.
Really TR7?
What does Toney have over Jesus in qualities besides the obvious aerial threat and power?
Samesong
Yes 30M and 100k in wages should be enough. I think Toney is bit of an all round striker even though he is far from a finished product yet.
Toney is a wild card alright. Iheanacho is not good.
Toney is a good striker but I think 7 of his goals last season were from non-penalties.
At 26 he is not likely to improve much. Mitrovic had a far superior goalscoring season in the Championship and smashed Toney’s record and he is at best a 10-12 PL goal a season player.
At least with Jesus there is the evidence that when he is played up top through the centre that he will score goals. He has spent the majority of the past two seasons playing wide.
Also creates plenty of goals and can dribble past players 1 vs 1.
WE
Power
Aerial threat
He can run channels
A very good outlet in counter attacking situations
Makes good progressive/key passes in attack
He can link up play
Saw somebody say that Jesus is not an upgrade on Nketiah, you have to laugh.
Umm Newcastle got qouted a price of 50 mill for Toney by Brentford.. is there a discount coupon I’m unaware of for Arsenal? hahaha
Anyhow first official day of transfer window.. and nothing.. huh? kind of figured. Have to see a picture of an executive grilling on a yacht on the French Riveria or standing in a beach in budgie smugglers talking to volleyball babes before we get serious, most likely sometime in July even though the season starts on Aug. 6th this year.
TR7
Besides the first two, Jesus is vastly better at all of those things.
Toney has a pass completion rate of 58% in the PL, that is beyond horrific.
“At least with Jesus there is the evidence that when he is played up top through the centre that he will score goals”
Jesus is a good player, so I don’t want to come across as someone who is shitting on him but we must not forget that City create a lot of chances for their striker and most of the time final passes/deliveries to the striker are inch perfect from the likes of KDB/Cancelo/Mahrez etc.
“Toney has a pass completion rate of 58% in the PL, that is beyond horrific”
Not a big fan of picking up stats when they probably don’t mean much in isolation. Brentford generally counter attack than build up and in counter attack things are so fast paced that your passing percentage will drop.
He is also out on the wing more than half the time TR7 and away from goalscoring positions for most of the game. KDB has been used many times as a false 9 by Pep.
There is a reason that he was trusted above Aguero in the later years in big CL games by Pep. Because he is not somebody who is only effective standing up top and waiting for the perfect pass, he can wreak havoc from the channels too.
Ivan Toney
33 appearances
12 goals
5 assists
40 key passes
80 shot creating actions
31 tackles
21 interceptions
150 aerial duels won
Impressive numbers for someone who plays for Brentford
PSG, Real, City are top tier of the transfer market.
They can pay top prices and offer top wages.
Then you have your Pool, Bayern, United, Chelsea and the like in the second tier.
Arsenal are so far down the pecking order right now, that I’d be surprised to hear we signed anyone of note until late in the window.
There’s dropping to levels around 70% which is fine if you plunder in a goal a game like Haaland does but considering that Toney barely scores and this hold up and link play of his is so highly thought of than yes, 58% is awful.
Cannot blame that on Brentford. Even teenage Lukaku who was considered very sloppy has averaged 70% + and he played for a West Brom team that were far worse than Brentford are.
TR7
Is 1 key pass that valuable if you misplace nearly every 2nd pass in a game that breaks down attacks?
Including defensive stats and ‘shot creating actions’ in his most impressive numbers isn’t what I would want to see out of my ST personally. We are going to dominate the ball against most PL teams and are not Brentford.
5 of Toney’s goals were pks as well… and 4 were from set pieces.. so 3 from open play. Just sayin
Thats my Weagle assist for the day… I’m done now.. 😀
More Toney stats:
-12 PL goals (5 penalties)
-1 goal vs top 6 opposition (Man Utd)
– 5 vs relegated Burnley and Norwich
26 not 21. I think there are far better options on the market than Toney with all due respect to him as he is a good midtable ST.
Middy on cue with the KDB esque lasered through- ball.
“Including defensive stats and ‘shot creating actions’ in his most impressive numbers isn’t what I would want to see out of my ST personally”
Kind of gives a sense that the guy can press high if required and drop deep to help in defense too when are defending a lead. Toney is a high intensity striker who is a bit raw but he has in him to become an effective striker for us.
Jesus is a good striker and more proven than Toney but he is very similar to Eddie in style. Toney offers something different in my view.
If Pep trusts Jesus in the striker role why didn’t he play him there often? Why would he rather play a false 9? If he prefers a false 9 why sign Haaland? Just maybe Pep thought that Jesus wasn’t up to it?
Im pretty well divided 50/50 on the Jesus decision… I can see both sides of the arguement.. but also Im not sure who else we can get that would be better. Plus the Brazilian connection and the City system which is like ours in theory. So leaning towards if we miss out on him.. I will be disappointed. But if we bring in Gnabry then I dont care. hahaha or soemthing like that.
Most bottom half teams score a lot of goals from set pieces and very few from open play. One must take in to account the team a player is playing for. You can put an asterisk on goals from penalty kick but not on goals from set pieces especially for a player playing for a team which spends a lot of time defending in their own half.
Guy is not top of my list by any means but even look at Raul de Tomas’s season in comparison playing for an Eapanyol team similar in quality to Brentford: -17 La Liga goals (5 pens) -3 assists – 1.5 dribbles per game (Toney is at 0.7) – 84 % pass completion and avg 23 passes a game. Here is the real difference though, look at who he is scoring against: 1 vs Champions Real Madrid (left-foot) 1 vs 2nd placed Barcelona 2 vs 3rd placed Atletico Madrid (Free-kick, header) 1 vs 5th placed Real Betis (left-foot) 5″11 and can… Read more »
I like Jesus but some of you are forgetting those physical games where we have no plan B and our forwards are getting brushed off the ball. Toney is a just an option. Toney bullied our defence first game of the season. Yes there are probably some better player’s on the market. Against the Brightons and Crystal palaces though you need that type of player.
I don’t want to see another season of endless crosses from Tierney finding nobody in our box.
Joking aside, I wonder of there is any way we could get Lukaku?
Obviously Chavs will sell to pretty much anyone else but they risk sinking a £100m transfer investment not to mention the wages into the ground if they are relying on broke Italian clubs.
Lukaku shown some love is a brilliant ST even if he is not quite world class. Certainly levels above Toney though.
No to Jesus. He is likely to go the Lacazette route whereby he is unable to do everything the current system asks from him and still score goals. An important question is how he is going to score more at Arsenal than he does at Man City while we only create a fraction of what they do at City. We need a striker with presence up front. Someone who can bring the likes of Saka and Martinelli into play with flick-ons etc. thus making us more direct. One of the reasons we got beat by the likes of Crystal and… Read more »
Romano: “Gabriel Jesus’ gonna join a Premier League club this summer – and not Real Madrid, as explained two days ago. More to follow soon.Gabriel will leave Man City for sure, no changes expected.”
Looks like Jesus to Arsenal is done.
Lukaku has plundered in well over 100 PL goals despite being 28 and playing two seasons in Italy (where he put up back to back 30+ goal seasons) for all the shit that has been talked about him.
Weagle
It’s all hypothetical but would much rather go for Werner than Lukaku. I don’t think either of them will like to move to Arsenal though.
Lukaku is right below top class but if he doesn’t like it at Chavs does anyone think there’s any way he’s going to enjoy playing football again under Generational?
Joke’s on me, I forgot it’s fun Friday!
Werner lol
In all seriousness tho Rap, what happens to him?
Turning 29 and clearly he will not start under Tuchel at Chelsea. Risky move to wait out a change of gaffer isn’t it?
And Inter are broke and cannot afford even his wages.
Fuck me TR7, that’s one way of saying that you rate your Nan above Big Rom.
Werner makes the average fan believe that they could lead the line for the Chavs.
Yes, Lukaku is not my type of footballer. Poor technique and poor touch.
Never bought in to the Big ROM hype 🙂
Only worse finisher up top I have seen than Werner is Chamakh.
Welbeck and Gervinho too if you include widemen. Shank or mishit vast majority of their shots.
WE, If we go hard for Lukaku in all honesty I might do a 180 degree turn and start believing that Arteta has a bright future ahead. Going all guns blazing for a player that has a sign that says “risky” attached to him will completely change my view on Generational who has so far preferred anything but risk in his transfers in and out. If we decides to put on the big boy pants, take on a player that could have a huge upside on our fortunes but who has also shown once that he can act like a… Read more »
Lukaku is 29 ? 😲😯😮
I still remember him at Everton with the dreadlocks just yesterday hahaha. Man is near retirement age already .
WengerEagle
Is Raul de Paul a tall physical player like Toney ?
TR7
Concur with you on not having no love for strikers with little to zero technique. But I ll take Lukaku though. Will score way more goals than Lacazette.
Naija
RDT is 5″11.
It’s a good thing that Chelsea’s major signings be flopping sometimes Could you imagine if all these signings worked out for them ; Shevchenko, Werner, Fernando Torres, Crespo.
Now granted it is the Mirror who aren’t the best source for veracity but this is a very positive Jesus stat if legit: ”Jesus is a four-time Premier League winner since joining City from Palmeiras in January 2017. Of his 159 Premier League outings for the Sky Blues, the forward has started just 99 times in England’s top flight. In that time, Jesus has scored 58 goals in the Premier League and has the 17th best minutes per goal ratio in the 30-year history of England’s top flight, scoring at a rate of a goal every 160 minutes. Of players… Read more »
This made me laugh. Not sure if it’ll share.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=433040008834764&set=a.209200837885350&type=3
Arsenals possible line up.
Weagle
No freaking way Arteta gets along with Lukaku.
Spurs agree £20m Spence deal
Tottenham have agreed a deal to buy Middlesbrough right-back Djed Spence for £20m, according to reports in the Guardian.
Annoyed
Spence could be a beast under Conte in that RWB role. Looked a real player in the Cup match against us.
LOL
Samesong’s favorite player gonna be a spud I’m so sorry…
Spuds have already got Spence, Perisic and Fraser Forster in the door and have Kulusevski and Bentancur from Jan too.
Not fucking about.
”Liverpool reject bid worth £23.5m up front for striker Sadio Mane from Bayern Munich; additional £6.5m in add-ons would only be paid if Bayern won three Champions Leagues and Mane lifted Ballon d’Or three times”
Per Sky Sports.
That is on the Wenger bantersphere of a ‘add-ons’ bid from Bayern.
WengerEagle
It’s the Conte effect. They know if they don’t give him players asap, he will bounce.
Condolences Samesong.. I’ve had to endure Pulisic playing for Chelski so I feel your pain.
Anyhow, France getting serious today .not going with the all project youth side. . starting Benzema. Saliba is startign however. but Matty G on the bench
WE: They’re spuds mate, never forget that important fact
Spence for £20m — lets see how he compares to Tomi.
That’s a lot of wonga
France are playing with fire.
”WE: They’re spuds mate, never forget that important fact”
This is always true and comforting. But they are a serious threat for top 4 and getting stronger.
Saliba caught napping for the Austria goal.
Still has creases to iron out of his game.
Griezmann is another one who strikes me as mentally having one foot out of the door of football. Looks a shadow of the player that he was 3-4 years ago.
Constantly flirts with the idea of moving to the MLS and getting to enjoy his real passion in the NBA. Bit like Vela in that football interest just isn’t there, is a job to him.
Matt, Tomi cost 17m but was considered a bargain so not sure how £20m is ‘a lot of Wong a’ exactly.
Norton Cuffy will be coming in 1 year and we have Tomiyasu now. No need to envy spuds. But some here will do that anyway.
These poor players having to play these games and in the silly UEFA Nations League now.
These players should be on the beach having a well earned break after a long season.
In that sense I wouldn’t be too harsh or judgemental on individual players in these summer UEFA Nations League matches.
Wenger Eagle those Jesus stats are interesting.
We have to remember how much rotation Pep does. It’s hell using any of his players in fantasy football.
So many appearances as subs, and that would increase next season with 5.
Goals/assists per minutes played, on top of hard work and versatility. Also he doesn’t mind if not played at traditional CF.
Not much to dislike.
Saliba allowing a goal is obviously the fault of Arteta.
Who is watching Austria vs France? how is our boy Bill
doing?
Mulerise
“Who is watching Austria vs France? how is our boy Bill
doing?”
lol only complete addicted footall loons watch summer UEFA Nations League matches.
So maybe they are the best people to ask.
Well Ragnick up 1-0 against France… Quick Man U… you can get him back.. it’s not too late… hahahaha
France about to play the Mbappe card.
Never even liked Griezmann. Would never have spent the money Barca paid ever.
Guen subs Tchou as Mbappe subs Griez.
Toney and Ihenacho are better than Jesus??? You sure read some wild opinions in here. As much as people on here don’t rate Jesus, it is not straight forward for us to get him. Chelsea are about to offload lukaku and they need an attacker. There are stories they want Jesus and Moussa Dembele together. We are being heavily linked to Raphinha this evening. I would be delighted with him. We won’t have to burnout Saka as much bland we won’t have too much drop on quality in all attacking midfield positions if we sign him. € 55 mil euros… Read more »
Mbappe card indeed.
Wow .. that was some goal.. by Mbappe.