Sad news to kick-off this morning, legendary Arsenal supporter, Maria Petri, has passed. She was the loudest voice at every game, she was totally dedicated to The Arsenal, and loved her club more than anyone. What a character. The outpouring online is quite something. Genuinely deserved, Maria was such a lovely human.
Onto the football…
Things haven’t really moved much on the transfer front.
Fabrizio Romano said that Arsenal will sell their players for proper prices and that might be why there’s some delay. He also keeps reiterating that there’s a surprise winger on the horizon. When your game is gossip, I’m at a loss why he’s keeping it under his hat, but there we are.
Out of Italy, we’re being linked with Arthur Melo. There’s rumours that he might be part of the most depressing deal of the summer with Torreira going the other way. Some outlets are also reporting we might go back in for a loan. I cannot get excited about this one. I’d rather buy on a perm deal and I’d rather the midfielder we sign be Youri Tielemans over someone that has tanked at Barcelona and Juventus.
Freddie Paxton, new to the Arsenal goss scene, seems to think that the deal for William Saliba will end on a high note.
Wow.
If that’s the case, you have to hand it to Edu and Arteta, they’ve done some BIG work there to get that over the line. Matt Kandela thought the player would ride it out and see what his options are, which makes sense when you see PSG give Mbappe the keys to the castle. But for me, there are two sides to that game, Sammy Umtiti broke himself, he went from a top 5 center-back in world football, to failing a medical at Rennes. There’s a lot to be said for guaranteed money in the world of sport because you never know when a knee might blow out, or someone with a knife will jump you in London. Life comes at you fast, you gotta make sure you have those benjamins in the bank.
My hope is he signs a 4 year deal with us with an option for another year so we can sell him if he doesn’t want to re-sign. Overpay him a bit, make him feel rich now, show him we love him, then hope he lives up to the outrageous billing he has.
My word… our back 4 is rapidly turning into one of the most exciting in European football. This time next season, when we’ve made moves on our back-up right back position, it’ll be one of the tastiest in the league and the average age will be about 25 years old. That’s 5 seasons of players at the top of their game. Incredible stuff.
We’re still waiting on Bukayo to sign his new deal. I suspect that we’ll wait until closer to the start of the season for that announcement. Give the fans and the players a big boost. Head into a very hard Friday night game against Palace with our new KING secure for the next 5 years.
Zinchenko is confirmed. This is what Arteta said about him.
“I know the player really well, he’s an exceptional footballer and he is someone that is going to bring as well another competitive edge to that dressing room.”
“He can play in both (defence and midfield). He was a natural No. 10 early in his career and we converted him into a left-back which can do a lot of things that we want in our way of playing.
“That versatility is something that is going to be important for the team because we have players in that position who are more specific full-back so I’m really happy.”
Arsenal fans, if you campaigned that Zinchenko was going to replace Xhaka, you may be suffering galaxy brain.
Occam’s Razor wins out.
Zinchenko is coming to give us a left-back option that offers build-up play. That allows our 8s to push forward, it means we don’t need to drop a midfielder into left back. It opens up the pitch and allows us to be more explosive with our attacks.
Edu had this to say:
“I’m very pleased to see how we’re working as a team here in the club. We put a plan together early and Oleksandr Zinchenko was a main focus on our list. We’re pleased to have Alex with us now because he has the attributes which I’m sure are going to put our squad at a different level.”
Sounds like he was the primary target, which makes sense, but damn… did we just use Lisandro as a smokescreen? Ruthless.
Arsenal has a press-resistant back 4. 5 players that can pick out 60 yard balls. 2 fullbacks that can invert. Pure character in every player.
It’s a great place to be.
Right, that’s all I have today.
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What Arteta needs to work out is why after spending a 100 mil on our defence, we were worse defensively . There could me a number of reasons why we conceded more . 1) A new back 4/5″ getting used to eachother. ? Not really , as we conceded more goals on the 2nd half of the season, despite conceding 9 in the first 3 games that Rich says shouldn’t count. 2)Playing a high line .? A possible reason , alrhough i can’t remember our defence being caught out too often with the ball over the top. 3) individual mistakes… Read more »
Media say Tielemans even waiting for us since April though we have not proposed anything… Tielemans may be doing a Bellerin and the market knows and no other clubs been linked to him with one year left in his contract… so Edu could pick him up for £20m, or less God forbids… haha
Like Paqueta though and while we are spending why not ? More firepower wouldn’t hurt. He scores goals…and assists it seems
Pierre,
Poor replacement full backs, and CDM options. When TT, KT and Partey were unavailable our defensive solidity suffered tremendously. With Saliba an Zinchenko coming in, we’re tremendously improved.
Some people STILL clamouring for another centre back signing which baffles me. I get wanting to have ball playing, press resistant, able to play a high line CBS, but our glaring weakness is still a baller of a CM. I love the talk about title challenging and as a squad we are getting close and closer. . It is unlikely to happen while Xhaka is a starter though, that’s the harsh reality. We need to be recruiting there to get to that level. So if we are to make another big signing this summer, I hope to see is focus… Read more »
Pedro, nice post. It’s funny but you and I took different outlooks on the comment from Arteta. ” “That versatility is something that is going to be important for the team because we have players in that position who are more specific full-back so I’m really happy.” Arsenal fans, if you campaigned that Zinchenko was going to replace Xhaka, you may be suffering galaxy brain.” I felt like he was obviously talking about Tierney as the specific full back, and where we differ is I feel like he meant that versatility will come in the form of him playing multiple… Read more »
Chris ‘harsh reality’ is right!
It’d seem financially the owner isn’t concerned with loading debt on the club. I’d rather we simply sell those don’t seem to work out quickly than draggin it out… and dont fiddling wirh stupid loans. How often had these worked out? Willock, v well. Who else? Not Bellerin, not Torreira even w a but obligation!
If many hype on our youth players then walk the talk and sell Tavares now, even Sambi if he doesn’t improve this season Point is, they aren’t 19 anymore like Marqui or Martinelli when we took a punt for £3m and £8m resp.
Tavares is I believe 23 so all this talk about giving him a loan to improve is wishful thinking, a bit like AMN will still become a top MF. Lakonga is a concern as it is not clear exactly what role he can fulfil at prem level with Elneny I think well ahead of him at the moment. If we go into next season with doubts as to the fitness of Tomi, Tierney and ESR we could end up with a repeat of last season as success will depend more than ever on squad depth. Partey I think will be… Read more »
Pedro hypes up our back 4 to be world class but who at the moment is the back four he is talking about.? Does it include Tomi and Tierney and White or Saliba at RCB.
The only position we still need to buy is CM and then sell Xhaka and develop Lokonga and Patino as the cover CMs
I found myself agreeing to Gakpo as a heat buy to someone on here yesterday but I’m now back to Why? We have Saka, Martinelli Vieira ESR and Marquinhos already there. That is a huge pool of exciting talent who need to be kept fighting for places and not ousted from the team or bench.
We really do not need a winger
Nor do we need a CB
We need a CM and that is it
* great not heat
Pierre – from memory weren’t we battered 4 nil at Anfield with a complete mix of defenders. I know you are comparing season on season fair enough but we did have some cobbled together teams in winter 2021 .
My overall impression of the season was in general the pundits were labelling us more resilient etc .
Northbanker
Agreed. All we need is one CM who can deputise for or play alongside Partey. A bit ironical that biggest Arteta fans want us to sign 3 more players (a winger, a CM and another CB) given they have immense faith in his coaching ability.
Bob “Poor replacement full backs, and CDM options. When TT, KT and Partey were unavailable our defensive solidity suffered tremendously. With Saliba an Zinchenko coming in, we’re tremendously improved.” Actually that is not the case when you take into consideration shots on target conceded.. Not including the first 3 games as Ramsdale wasn’t playing and apparently they don’t count, here are the shots conceded on target from our 12 games at the start of the season from when Ramsdale came in , compared to our 12 games at the end of the season. Start of season Played 12 Shots on… Read more »
Markymark “My overall impression of the season was in general the pundits were labelling us more resilient etc .” The Pundits were fooled by Ramsdale’s exceptional start when he was saving 4 out of 5 shots on goal. The defence actually was not that good . Ramsdale’s form dipped and was conceding 1 out of 2 shots on goal, pundits and fans blamed the defensive replacements despite our defence reducing the number of shots on target, if Ramsdale had kept up his earlier form of saving 4 out of 5 shots on target, questions wouldn’t have been asked of our… Read more »
Pierre It’s likely a combination of things: Before Klopp signed Van Dijk, Alisson + Fabinho, and had time to work with his full backs, he was labelled defensively naive, there was a narrative that he couldn’t organise a defence, and that you couldn’t play a high pressing game across 38 games in the PL. Liverpool went from conceded 50, to conceded 42, to conceded 38, to conceded 22, off the back of signing Van Dijk, Alisson + Fabinho, even with the best manager in the league, it took him time + money to sort things, Man City conceded 39 in… Read more »
Even before the season begins our two backs are out injured.
Both are permanent crocks so we need plenty over cover, not Cedric.
Pierre, I’m not saying statistics are not a useful indicator but when you list reasons for being ‘worse defensively’ you failed to mention that missing our first choice FBs and DCM led to a massive drop off in quality with their replacements. If you can’t see that or don’t recognise that as the main reason for our defensive frailties at times last season, I’d be amazed. ‘Actually that is not the case when you take into consideration shots on target conceded’. You respond to my main reason for being’ worse defensively’ by purely focussing on Ramsdale’s stats. Ramsdale’s form dropped… Read more »
Rich “We look for technical security all over the pitch, we have a set of defenders who are all comfortable pushing up, and good in possession, then elite technicians who know how to keep the ball, tire the opponents, and kill the game with 100,000 passes” And yet we conceded 48 goals last season so obviously that needs addressing…..i believe the best way to address it would be to sign a top quality keeper, that would be a start. The supposedly tactical inept wenger in 18 out of 20 seasons conceded less than the tactically astute Arteta, imagine that ,… Read more »
Bob “you failed to mention that missing our first choice FBs and DCM led to a massive drop off in quality with their replacements. If you can’t see that or don’t recognise that as the main reason for our defensive frailties at times last season, I’d be amazed.” I said “These figures tell me that defensively we were more solid towards the end of the season despite injuries to Partey, tomiyasu and tierney, conceding only 39 shots on target compared to 58 earlier in the season.” So defensively there wasn’t a drop off at all , in fact the opposite… Read more »
We are ass at RB by the way. Keeping Cedric who is a disaster wiating to happen is going to bite us in the ass when Tomiyasu and his mysterious injuries re-surface.
We are still short at CM. Relying on Partey and Xhaka will be terrible. Please no Arthur Melo jeez.
So far so good, my greatest joy has been we have gotten in a proven goal scorer and that the club has backed Arteta. Shouldn’t be any excuses for failure this upcoming season really
Our defending is poor.
White always goes to ground making himself infective , and Gabriel turns his back very early when an player shoots.
Both players often just boot it away in panic.
Not the best ways to defend
Julian Nagelsmann Is our friend , is our friend
Julian Nagelsmann is our friend
He’s killing Conte!
Gone a bit 70’s Millwall chant but…
Loving my new best mate Julian doing a nice undermining job on the Spuds with come to bed offers for Kane .
Can Kane resist Bayern Munich? He’s going to want to win a major prize at some point and a nailed on Bundesliga has got to be a temptation. Got all season to think about it as well.
Pierre The idea Wenger didn’t know how to setup a team is farcical. The games certainly changed over the last 5-6 years though, impact players who don’t do both sides of the game, are going out like the dinosaurs. Shifting styles, and implementing a defined style, isn’t an event, it’s a process, even Pep + Klopp have needed time + resources, they’ve redefined the standards required to be successful. City dropped off for a season integrating Rodri + Cancelo, and before signing Diaz, and they were already much better all over the pitch than we were to begin with. Odegaard,… Read more »
Pierre – Wenger wasn’t immune to receiving some fearful batterings. The horrors of Man UTD away , Chelsea away and the demolition that Bayern dealt us across 2 legs . These were hide behind the sofa moments
Those teams were not set up properly. This became symptomatic of his 2nd half of his tenure.
I just don’t see the constant need to constantly hold Arteta against Wenger. Move on.
Rich
“That’ll help us defend differently, because instead of bringing on Holding to defend our own box, which naturally invites pressure, and leaves us sitting much deeper, we’re better equipped to defend through technical + athletic security.”
I think you’ll find that we bring Holding on because we are already under pressure not to Invite pressure.
If we were soldly defending ” through athletic and technical security” then there would be no need to bring Holding on..
Rich 100% correct. The game has changed but some people still haven’t moved on. So many Jurassic opinions. It is no longer like it was back in the day when a defender, for example, was just another defender. Tactical demands and rule changes have created hybrid players who may be defenders but are creators too. This is why the profiling has been so important. It was never about short term planning or compromise football it was always about long term planning. And patience. The last two seasons have been compromise football as we build. It’s something knee-jerkers hate. For fans… Read more »
Barca toying with Chelsea in transfer market. They first beat Chelsea in Rafinha race and have apparently beaten them again to sign Kounde.
Pierre, Exactly, why do you think we’ve just signed Zinchenko?.. We haven’t signed Zinchenko because he’s a good defender, he’s an average defender, we’ve signed Zinchenko because he’s an elite technician, who rarely misplaces a pass, and provides penetration from deep areas. It’s a different way of defending. Why do you think we’ve signed Odegaard last summer, and Vieira + Jesus this summer? It’s not just to help us breakdown deep blocks, it’s to give us technical defensive security from the front. Moving from one style into another, was never going to be a smooth transition that happened overnight, it… Read more »
Gakpo = Dele Alli
Arsenal should not go near this average player
Pierre, I admire your individuality. ‘So defensively there wasn’t a drop off at all , in fact the opposite was the case, the drop off was the level of our goalkeeper.’ You must be in quite a minority to insist that Ramsdale was at the heart of our defensive frailties and not that our first choice FBs and CDM were missing for much of the 2nd half of the season. You even suggest that we were better defensively! Stats do sometimes lie! If you’re saying Tavares, Soares and a combination of Elneny and Xhaka playing together was not an issue… Read more »
Rich “We haven’t signed Zinchenko because he’s a good defender, he’s an average defender, we’ve signed Zinchenko because he’s an elite technician, who rarely misplaces a pass, and provides penetration from deep areas.” Isn’t this what they said about Ben White but stats have apparently shown that Gabriel is on the ball more than white . I’m all for good technical players who can keep the ball and pass the ball and are press resistant, but a defender’s main priority should be to defend the goal , just as a keeper’s main priority should be to keep the ball out… Read more »
Agree Bati and have been saying it for a long time RB still needs to be addressed. Dare I say too we’ll be looking to address the goalkeeper position in the not too distant future as well.
just like a playmaker’s main priority is to create real chances for his team mates
Oh the irony Pierre
Bob “You must be in quite a minority to insist that Ramsdale was at the heart of our defensive frailties and not that our first choice FBs and CDM were missing for much of the 2nd half of the season. You even suggest that we were better defensively!” Bob , the fact is Ramsdale conceded 19 goals from 39 shots on target in the final 12 games of the season. Ramsdale only conceded 13 goals from 58 shots on target for his first 12 games for Arsenal . And despite our first choice full backs and first choice defensive mid… Read more »
“We haven’t signed Zinchenko because he’s a good defender, he’s an average defender, we’ve signed Zinchenko because he’s an elite technician, who rarely misplaces a pass, and provides penetration from deep areas.” If Zinchenko were all that City wouldn’t have sold him for 30m and he certainly would’ve logged more than 1000 PL minutes for them last season. He’s a technical player who provides safety in possession all right , but the penetration part is blown out of proportion for sure. City are after Cucurella who provides penetration, as well as technical ability. I like Zinchenko and he walks into… Read more »
Zinchenko for 30M is an insanely good deal. This TW has been top notch. If we could get a replacement for Xhaka, it would be even better. Looks like the club will play a game of chicken with Leicester so if we get Tielemans, it will probably be in the final days of the window.
All in all, I’m very happy with Arteta’s/Edu’s talent ID. The only exception is goalkeepers. Ramsdale/Turner look like a non-trivial downgrade on Emi/Leno. Hopefully that won’t bite us in the ass.
Arteta could have had Martinez in goal and Saliba in central defense since the start of his first full season at Arsenal but he made such messy decisions that 3 years later we still don’t have our GK situation sorted and there are still question marks over our defense.
Zinchenko may not be elite but he is better than overrated Tierney for sure.
Pierre, you are seriously pig headed at times!
Hiding behind statistics rather than being willing to acknowledge that we were worse off with Tavares, Soares and Xhaka playing with Elneny rather Partey.
I might as will have a discussion with a brick wall.
Get back to your stats, why don’t you.
TT I’m not sure the penetration part is blown out of proportion, you could put it down to playing in a City team, but Zinchenko statistically provides the same level of excellence in possession, playing in midfield for Ukraine: Zinchenko on the back-foot isn’t a good defender, but in terms of keeping his team on the front foot, he’s elite We’re getting him at a very good age + level of experience, this isn’t a player anywhere near the backend of his career, and stylistically should play later into his career if he has the hunger, because he’s not a… Read more »
Tom, sure City can successfully replace Zinchenko but the facts remain he was a valued member of their squad, who had given exempary service for five years, he had one year left on a contract(I think) and he’d been offered an attractive alternative to City, the team he supported as a boy. Win, win all round.
Let’s see how good he’ll be before dampening our enthusiasm Tom!
Most of the percentiles posted by Rich above for Zinchenko are positively influenced by the fact that he played in a very attacking and technically gifted City team but still it is true that Zinchenko has a good technique.
Pedro, Congrats on the arrival of your new bundle of joy and fatherhood . excited to see Jesus and Zinchenko in the red and white hopefully they push us to the promise land. Central midfield is still a big issue for me Can’t rely on xhaka and the always injured Partey! I have to say signing White and Ramsdale still looks like an expensive and unnecessary mistake Our shocking goals conceded stats say it all! Could Leno have done any worse? If we used the funds to strengthen the central midfield and striker positions we would have got champions league.… Read more »
My overriding memory of Zinchenko while watching City was his drag back and pass to CB when closed down.
Expect many of those when at LB.
But I don’t remember a single turnover from him.
At LB he’s a safety first player.
Bob, I suppose when I said Odegaard wouldn’t take players on much but I still liked his signing vs Maddison, I was being negative and dampening people’ enthusiasm.
So, so fragile Bob.
TR 7, of course.
Damn the ads on here are painfull I seem to click in them all the time
Saint Max?
Grab him please … swap for plus cash
Pepe*
”
Our defending is poor.
White always goes to ground making himself infective , and Gabriel turns his back very early when an player shoots.
Both players often just boot it away in panic.
Not the best ways to defend”
Matter of fact…
*yawn* A left-back option.
We never seriously believed that Xhaka would be ousted from the team did we.
As for the most exciting defence in the league I’d like to see the number of goals decreased this coming season to come to that conclusion.
Not that it matters much but Zinchenko had two years left on his City contract.
“As for the most exciting defence in the league….”
Has anyone actually said that?
Did they mean exciting as in getting your heart rate up?
I think it’s a fairly safe bet that Saliba is a better player now than he was at the beginning of last season.
Guardiola spoke back in Dec/Jan, saying his biggest achievements was coming back with largely the same group of players, and delivering consistency, because usually after a while, players switch off. Klopp has previously spoken about how the players get bored of him after a while. Ferguson once said “If you don’t change your team every 5 years, then they’ll change you” He didn’t just used to evolve his teams, he’d evolve his coaching staff as well, in order to freshen things up, Pep has freshened up his coaching staff a few times as well. Sterling had been at City 7… Read more »
Tom, ‘fragile’? If anything your ego seems to be have a fragility issue, appearing to need to come on here with your pseudo rationalisations trying to convince Arsenal fans that they should avoid being too optimistic and listen to your doomsaying. The zeitgeist zooms far over your head. Not saying it should be a requirement to be happy and positive all the time but it reveals more about your character than your footballing wisdom. to be able to predict your take on Zinchenko’s arrival. His purchase seems universally welcome but you can’t help yourself and put dampeners on it. Every… Read more »
Nice one Bob.
I don’t get this … how poor Ramsdale was 2nd half of season bla bla bla..
firstly he was brilliant in first half is season and was never going to consistently keep that level.. when people go on about goal’s conceded by a keeper there are other contributing factors..
more then happy with buying him.. already forced himself into England squad and probably no where near his prime
Tom
“Has anyone actually said that?”
On the latest blog.
Until players show consistency for several seasons then a patch of form can be just that.
This could apply to Ramsdale as well as Eddie N.
With regards to Melo.His old club Gremio apparently are also looking to have him back.Which hopefully is the more likely of the rumours.
I like Zinchenko.
Was one of the first to say get him in when first linked and yes over Tielemans.
But just as a left back option not as exciting as Xhaka replacement is it.
I’m hoping against hope that Zinchenko will parade in midfield when Tierney gets back.
G -unfortunately people tend to hang on to bad performances rather than good ones. Turner is. now apparently a shit goalkeeper because his debut game was dodgy, despite barely having time to breathe on arrival and being rusty from not playing for a while and with a huge number of years racking up top performances in the US
But that’s how it rolls with the dementors on Le Grove
Ish Even players who provide consistency for several seasons, can regress. … Form + success are both malleable, not consistent, players who’ve been consistent can become inconsistent, and vice versa…. It’s the reason casinos + betting companies rarely lose, because when gamblers are winning, they think they’ll keep winning in perpetuity, and logic + common sense goes out the window high on adrenaline. Peak Wenger used to be the master of knowing when to dump a player, and recognising when a young players career was about to take off, unfortunately those powers deserted him in his latter years, and the… Read more »
Rich
A player that shows consistency of performance at the highest level for several seasons has earnt some real recognition over a player that shows a batch of form for a period.
Of course both cases can regress or improve or stand still but it’s just a case of prolonged evidence that some feel more comfortable with before making concrete judgements on players.
There are so many instances of players having a batch of form but not carrying that on over a longer period. Loads and loads. Unlimited amount.
We hope Ramsdale was having a blip second part of the season and Eddie N can carry on where he left off at the end of last season.
Ramsdale is of course the bigger worry because we now have Jesus if Eddie falls back somewhat.
It’s still surprising to see some writing that Mikel doesn’t improve players when Eddie Nketiah is literally in front of you. It’s clear that he’s been a better player since last season and not just the Auba type poacher we all used to see. Also Martinelli has been better recently and it’s surprising people are making it seem like a make or break seasons. I tell you, if he was playing for Everton and had 12 goal contributions in about 21 PL starts some here would be saying the club should pay £40M for him same way Gakpo is the… Read more »
From inception we all knew Ramsdale was above Avery in shot stopping although he commanded his area better then Leno when it comes to crosses and corners. What caught majority of us by surprise is his very good distribution and passion for those that care about stuff like that. Mid season his distribution became a little erratic and put the defense under lots of pressure, if he can go back to his early season form and we keep the ball a lot better as a team I believe Ramsdale would be fine
Going from Leno/Martinez to Ramsdale/Turner is not the progress, sugarcoat it all you want.
Ish
It doesn’t matter what players are doing now, or what they’ve done in the past, because past performance, is no guarantee of future results.
What matters when looking to sign players, or extend contracts, Is how they do in future, and that’s why we need exceptionally astute bureaucrats, who can recognise when a players career is on a downward spiral, or an upward trajectory
We need to learn when to dump or stock, and when to get in at the beginning of a bull market.
I’m very happy with the Zinchenko signing.
Ramsdales form should not be a major worry for us. Form nd mentality in pro sport are the difference between championship/league 1 and prem. A lot of players are physically and technically able to compete at high levels but it throws off things like confidence and morale. Some cope better w these issues than others. For instance theo walcott was never going to change who he was as a person to attain luis suarez levels of cold bloodedness. Form isnt a deterministic thing linked to talent- its about intangibles so its no suprise when ramsdales form dips during the period… Read more »
I’ll make a bet now that Eddie will bag a minimum of 25 goals this season.
Providing he’s picked of course!
Man Utd are a disgrace chasing a player in De Jong that has publicly said he doesn’t want them. Barca owe him money and he doesn’t want to leave so pretty sure I wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon.
Graham, I’m confident about Eddie too. Has to stay fit of course but a goal every other game could happen.
I would find it terribly amusing to see Barca crash and burn this season. Laporte has gambled the clubs whole future on the now. I hope it blows up in their faces.