TACTICAL FLEXING + WHAT CHELSEA WILL TELL US ABOUT PALACE 11

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Ugh… preseason games against clubs that are our rivals can be really irritating.

If we beat Chelsea this evening, I’ll be knee sliding onto Twitter to confirm that, yes, we are going to win the league.

If we lose, I will build a trench, hunker down, and fire ‘IT WAS TOO HOT’ commentary at the weirdos that’ll get off on the loss.

It’s a no-win situation.

Preseason is good for confidence, but let’s be honest, beating Liverpool in the Community Shield a few years ago didn’t do much for our title aspirations, did it?

The game won’t impact our season, but it’ll make us feel good if we put on a show.

There are two more games left of the preseason. My suspicion is that the club probably know, loosely, who is going to be ready for the first game of the season. I suspect a large chunk of the game this evening will be the starting 11 for the Crystal Palace game that lands in 2 weeks!

Here are some suppositions:

The fullback situation is probably going to look like it did at the end of last season. If KT and Tomi aren’t available, then I’d guess they aren’t going to have enough time to get match fit for the Palace game. What we have to hope is the problems they have aren’t recurring and they aren’t BIG issues. If Tomi has done his calf again, I’m gonna lose it.

Right back is going to be the position to watch. There are three options, Cedric, Ben White, and William Saliba. My guess is you will see Ben White occupying the role. He’s better on the ball than Cedric, he’s a stronger defender, and he has previous doing the role. I also think asking Saliba to fill in there could be problematic. Put the smaller more nimble player there. White also looked really sharp when he inverted the other night.

Not sure if I mentioned this yesterday, but William Saliba is apparently close to signing a new deal with the club. Quite something. Just remember all the folk that spent all last season squealing about how badly he’d been treated, about how upset the player would be, about how Arteta wouldn’t take him back, that if he came back he’d not sign a new deal. Remember those people today. What makes this Saliba story even more delicious is there are stories that Barcelona has been trying to get him to move to them for the past 4 months. The kid was so unphased by a world-class loan period, he pushed away the advances of Barcelona. Wow. Don’t infantilize grown men that are elite alpha athletes. They aren’t bitches. They are the top 0.00001% of humans that can play a global game at the highest level. They like competition.

No doubt in my mind we’re going to start the season with Zinchenko at left-back. Nuno Tavares has taken a loan move to Atalanta (NO BUY CLAUSE), which from a coaching perspective, feels like a really, really good move. KT hasn’t been seen. So hopefully the fact that Zinchenko speaks the language of JcP as well as any player in the world, he’ll click right away. Let’s hope his fitness is where it needs to be!

Our starting midfield partnership this season is going to be Granit and Thomas Partey and I think that’s right, I suspect they’ll roll out today. If they can control the game at home against City, I gotta tell you, I think they can control anyone. Xhaka comes with flaws, but he also comes with a lot of benefits, and he brings out the best in Partey. The evolution for Granit this season is that he will be pushed higher up the pitch as a #8, and that will allow our system to transition to Thomas P and a more advanced #8 like… Tielemans.

It’s also interesting that Arsenal have given up on Lokonga as a #6, they apparently now see him as a #8 LCM, I think that came from Gunnerblog? I agree though. I think Sambi offers more further up the pitch. He’s too young and inexperienced to be our #8 this season, I think that’ll be Tielemans, but he’s a great rotation option and I think people are sleeping on him and he’ll show that this year.

I’m not sure where the front 3 is going to go. Emile Smith Rowe has been absent, I think Gabi Martinelli might occupy the left, Gabriel Jesus through the middle, with Bukayo on the right. We also can’t rule out Eddie occupying the left more this season, potentially playing in a two with Jesus.

The thing I’m most excited about is the tactical flexibility Arteta is baking into the squad. He’s trying to make us unpredictable. He has players intelligent enough now to switch up systems after 15 minutes. It’s a very NFL play-by-play type approach, but being able to switch to something new can backfoot teams and cause all sorts of headaches if you can do it well. It also should help us in the big games. If Arteta can make a formation decision 2 minutes before kick-off, you can be very damaging.

Finally, James from The Athletic said that a data presentation convinced Gabi Jesus to move to Arsenal. Arsenal use all sorts of fancy tools, some proprietary I believe, to show players what their role in our system is, the sort of chances they’ll get, when they’ll bring to the side, and I reckon they probably ran a model that said ‘last season, you’d have scored 20 goals in our system and Arsenal would have finished 3rd.’

Reality here: Gabi Jesus and Zinchenko didn’t move to Arsenal to play for 4th. They’ve been told we’re going to challenge for the league in 2 seasons’ time. Guffaw at that, soil your panties that it’s aggressive but damn… doesn’t it feel good that someone at the club is finally dreaming big?

Right, that’s me done. Get the podcast into your system. Matt and Pedro are going to go On The Whistle so UK fans have something to watch right after the game tomorrow morning. It’ll be Patreon tho. So you’re gonna have to pony up some cash/money to see it.

Become a Patron!

558 Comments
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Dissenter

What did Xhaka do again?

AFC Forever

How good is Odegaard!!! He’s going to thrive on the movement around him. Lovely technician.

Jonnygunner

We can only hope that we don’t get a lot of injuries through the season. The first eleven is really strong. Our second choices not so much.

Mr Serge

Also Vieira not in the squad plus I think we sign at least one more

Le Sauce

Great first half. I like the look of this team going into the season, no need to worry about Tomi and Tierney injuries by the look of things. The only major issue is what happens when Partey gets injured

Jonnygunner

If this lot can stay fit we’ll be flying

GD4

Big Willy Saliba playing like a Don.
Give him whatever he wants Edu.
The boy is a gem.

Dissenter

Zach
I’m hav ing difficulties knowing who’s who inn the Chelsea team tbh
Why didn’t the have names in their jersey
If they don”t have kitmen traveling with them, they can use commercial DTG machines that cause as little as $300 on amazon.com

That’s amateur stuff from Chelsea

We just signed Zinchenko and he has his name printed on his jersey

Jonnygunner

Put Tielemans in there as well….boom

Rich

Odegaard is so much fun to watch, I have no idea how you can love football, but not love Martin Odegaard?….

That Jesus fella is really fun to watch as well.

GD4

This team looks so good.
Except for nervous moments from Gabby Maga and the usual lead footed movement from Xhaka we look a pretty formidable side

MidwestGun

If we can keep up the high press like we did last 20 mins of Orlando and this half wth our starters not many teams can stand up to that.. but it’s just a matter of health and how much we can keep it up over the course of a long long season.

Nigel Tufnel

Love that Martinelli assist.. I want to see more of that action from Ødegaard this season.. go for goals, don’t just look to pass..

salparadisenyc

Lets see more from the Arsenal – Chaos merchants centrale.

Jonnygunner

Can’t believe we had less possession and less passes than Chelsea in the first half

Nelson

Diss

It was 2 vs 2.Xhakae ran away following the ball instead of staying with his man. That’s why Chelsea almost scored.

Dissenter

Rwandan tourism is getting their money;s worth
Good exposure from Arsenal
We’ll be asking for kore when that contract is due for renewal

Mr Serge

Watching it on Chelsea website Jason Cindy is shitting his pants says we are a cut above them

salparadisenyc

Pepe walking for the Chelsea bench, forgot which side he was ono there.

Nigel Tufnel

Make sure you get in some more digs at Xhaka.

You think it makes your own life less of a failure to abuse Xhaka constantly?

AFC Forever

Rich

Jesus and Odegaard are something else. I said Odegaard would benefit from having better movement and interchange around him. Saliba and White look good too. It’s 2 o’clock in the morning I don’t normally get hard that late at night without viagra…!!

Dissenter

Nelson
‘Chelsea almost scored because of the sheer brilliance of Mason Mount

That’s want I saw anyway
Xhaka seems to play under a magnifying glass it seems

Mr Serge

Xhaka has been solid as he was after Mikel switched his position second half of the season

Don’t like the guy but he is not playing. Badly

Freddie Ljungberg

Pedro

Didn’t say he never has good moments, they’re not very frequent though, although a bit more so lately. 2 assists last season playing further up the pitch isn’t good enough. He’s the most obvious player to upgrade on now, everywhere else we’re good for starters and in most positions we have excellent backup as well.

That aside, great half of football, Jesus looking so damn good, Martinelli and Ode purring, some of the combination play was amazing. Saliba looking like he won’t have any trouble adapting at all. A shame we can’t play that lineup all game.

Rich

AFC Forever

We’re now at the stage where our first choice 11 with give anyone a game, specifically at home.

Saliba just makes it look so effortless, physically he’s imposing

MidwestGun

Captain chaos Nuno is definitely on.

salparadisenyc

Martinelli playing no hand break tonight making those trademark runs, curious to see how this shifts with whats surely a load of subs incoming.

Nigel Tufnel

Dissenter,

It’s the Xhaka microscope.. the Xhakascope

It only picks up flaws… misses 95% of the game.

You can see I’m tired of the Xhaka bully boys. They barely understand the overall game.

Nigel Tufnel

Saliba has a smoothness about him… I love that Arteta is trying White ahead of Cedric.. this bodes well for more playing time for Saliba in season.

Nelson

Diss

I have ignored that Nig… long time ago.

Xhaka made a good assist.

MidwestGun

That was a dive from Alonso. good no call.

Zacharse

“get your head on a swivel, that frenchman just let it fly!”

AFC Forever

Rich

Yes. It’s what we have been saying, we’ve been limited with the players we had tactically. Back to front we’ve made some game changing additions. Jesus is just another level & he’ll improve those around him, like Martinelli & Odegaard in particular. We also have flexibility & options too.

Venga, Dani

Watching Jesus maintain possession just makes me realize how poor our strikers were last year

MidwestGun

Xhaka with a Partey special shot.

GD4

Good lord Xhaka.
Bonafide scrub

MidwestGun

Looks like we are working on defending a lead this half.. sitting back more and countering. Eddie for Jesus incoming.

Samuel

Tavares is hopeless FFS

Mr Serge

Tavares is only here for another week he is defo a weak link bless him

Mark

Saliba the best defender out there!
Take of Xhaka.. to protect him…
Please.😉

Aaron

My, my, my, what a wonderful half of pressing and attacking futbol.

Sign of things to come.

Know it is preseason, but wow!

AFC Forever

Tavares is lacking confidence. He needs a Loan.

Mr Serge

The ref is a joker blows up for everything

AFC Forever

Venga, Dani

I think Jesus is so good he makes most strikers look average. I love his movement, on and off the ball. Intelligent player.

Mr Serge

Chelsea have improved this half

Mr Serge

Saka bang

MidwestGun

Cleanup on aisle Saka! Goal!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dissenter

Saka looked offside there but who cares

Sly

🔥🔥🔥

georgia boy

Marquinhos time

MidwestGun

Haha Saka trying to learn the Samba dance goal celebration from Marquinhos was funny.

Nigel Tufnel

Where’s the Xhakascope on that one?
Twitter buzzing positive for him.

Mr Serge

Saliba excites me as does ode and Jesus

MidwestGun

Mass subs incoming…

AFC Forever

Artetaball in full swing.

Some of the passing and movement has been superb. We’ve clearly worked hard in training.

GD4

Mass scrubs you meant right … I kid I kid

MidwestGun

I think we emptied the whole bench.

Rich

Bit lucky with that 3rd, but who cares…. Fu*k the chavs.

AFC Forever

Mass substitutions will destroy the rhythm but boy was that fun!!

rollen

Great stuff. Record attendance, finally US aprieciate proper sport. Pedro and AKBs how soft is your skin from all this eggs on your face regarding Saliba. He looks great!

MidwestGun

Good game for all the starters. no complaints there.. Now it’s substitute fun time. for 10 mins. and we win the Flo-rida Cup. Very prestigious of course.

Dissenter

There’s a player lurking inside of Tavares
He’s such a great athlete

Mr Serge

Rollen what you talking about who said anything about saliba not being a great buy from us ?

rollen

Clean sheet now!

rollen

I like Tavares too.

MidwestGun

Oh Pepe… *sigh*

rollen

If we play like that last season we would get 3rd ez

Mr Serge

Tavares just needs to learn how to defend his forward play is lovely

He was fun to watch in the league cup last season

Nigel Tufnel

Saliba wins for Arsenal.. we all win.

Anyway, like Arteta says… it proves that the loans worked perfectly.

Hope that rumour that he’s extending is true!

rollen

All Arsenal games should be played at this time to accommodate west coast fans!

Rich

Tavares is such a weird player, breathtaking one minute, petrifying the next, shows up in areas he has no business being.

Tactically + positionally he’s a long way off the required level, interested to see how he develops with regular playing time, he’s got a lot of exciting qualities, if he can just bring them all together

I definitely want him learning on someone else’s time though.

Mr Serge

Nige he will defo extend the kid is an arsenal fan and you can see something good is happening here

rollen

Tavares needs polishing and game time, loan at good clubb would be nice

Dissenter

“Great stuff. Record attendance, finally US aprieciate proper sport.”

That’s just lazy stereotyping
109,318 fans in,2014, watched a gloried friendly Manchester United and Real Madrid, at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan
United vs Liverpool grossed 101k in the same summer of 2014.
The highest world cup attendance was in USA 94 WC
MLS games have surpassed the 75k mark on the west coast.

rollen

oh suck ti but, record for this stadium

Mr Serge

Our first cup of the season lol matching the spuds earlier 🤣🤣🤣

rollen

u r Keser multi Dis

Mr Serge

Diss record attendance at this ground they said

Rich

Get in!

Venga, Dani

4!!!!!

rollen

Fuck , this just builds hope so much, ready to be dissipointed

Dissenter

Yea, that’s it
Even our subs have stepped up

georgia boy

Lokonga! Very nice

Mr Serge

Sambi nice one

MidwestGun

Hey look at that Lokongo with the header… 4-0! Love a good Chelsea beat down!

Venga, Dani

Bring on extensions for Saka + Willy

rollen

Sambi! I like him too, he can make it too. New guy at work is a rent bou fan. Can’t wait for Monday lol

Mr Serge

What a hammering that was we were great

MidwestGun

Whoop whoop suck it Chelsea… you got schooled.

AFC Forever

Lovely header. That will do him good.

rollen

So nice to have game late to get slightly fucked up!
Fuck ex chelski

Luteo Guenreira

Not marked at all but still a nice header from Sambi, great way to end the game.

AFC Forever

Midwest, you can have fun with your bro now!!!

Thierry Martinelli

Good win
Good performance offensively and defensively.

Rich

We need to get some players out, and KSE need to dust off that chequebook again.

3 more top players incoming, and if we can keep our players fit, and we’ll be very competitive

Mr Serge

Middy tell your brother they took one hell of a beating lol

MidwestGun

AFC.. you know it man.. Got to get my licks in.

Dissenter

This was one thing Wenger resisted for so long
Stopping the team from going on preseason tours

That’s how Chelsea got so well supported in America. They worked super hard touring and touring

georgia boy

Boys, we look like kings. Fuck yes