A wise man once said…
‘You CAN read into preseason when it’s one game out from the start of the season’
… and I believed him.
Arsenal ripped Sevilla apart in an outrageous afternoon of elite football.
Calling us City Lite last season felt like a sleight; this season, I think it’s going to be a warning.
We pressed like monsters. We were setting traps to get the ball back. Everyone knew their job and there were NO passengers.
Our defence looks fabulous, Saliba played like the VVD Regen we’ve been dreaming of, we didn’t miss Tomi or Tierney, there were no weaknesses.
Thomas Partey was absolute silk in the middle of the park, he was at ease on the ball, he pinned the midfield on his own, and he had a stunning flair about his game.
Have you been whinging about Granit Xhaka? How many assists does he have to get before you realise he’s the best midfielder in world football right now? Ok, I took it too far, but he has been in great form.
CAPTAIN ODEGAARD. Perfection, the kid is a leader, he’s a role model, forget about my daughter, I WOULD MARRY HIM. I just love his intensity, he’s playing like a man on a mission, it is a delight.
The front three were electric. Bukayo is BACK. Top class all the way. Martinelli is clearly LOVING his Brazilian pal to play with, his diagonal cross was outrageous.
GABRIEL JESUS! As Benny Devito said in the comments of The Arsenal Opinion Podcast. He IS the resurrection of Arsenal.
What a talent. Forgive me father for my blasphemy about his height, I AM A SINNER, punish me with goals. SO MANY GOALS.
Then to cap a wonderful day off… a moment that said it all about CULTURE. Granit released Martinelli through the middle, the Brazilian could have gone solo, instead, he put his mate EDDIE KRUEGER in for a tap in. That’s when you know the squad like each other.
So where are we?
Our squad looks fit and cooked to the perfect temperature.
Everyone knows their role.
The squad is VERY strong.
We are scoring goals for fun.
I’m telling you, this season will have ups and downs, but keep focused because we are going to be a problem this season.
Everyone can play the ball out the back.
Everyone is press resistant.
Everyone has a fighting spirit.
Now we have goals.
We’re on a very exciting journey this season. Let’s enjoy it. Let’s not catastrophise bad results. Let’s buckle in. The hope is underpinned by truth this season.
I CANNOT WAIT.
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Torreira is a great little player with real emotional issues (not funny). What are you a phycologist now. Not our clubs fault. But some people on legrove think it’s all so simple. I mean it is our clubs fault that we mismanaged and misused a talented player to the point that we got fuck all for him. Is it even up for debate how shit we are at selling our players? I mean we could have gotten 25 million for AMN but kept him around to do nothing and now we’d be lucky to get a loan to buy option… Read more »
But they’ve still developed a youth player through their actions,
Please fuck off with that nonsense arsenal have no right to any praise for developing Saliba. That’s the definition of mental gymnastics
People don’t praise Xhaka when he does well simply because his bad performances are much more frequent and cost us much more than what we gain out of his rare good performances and it’s the same pattern season in and season out.
I empathise with Arteta on how he would cope giving the CBs he has game time next season. And here we have Rich, asking that an additional elite defender be added to sit on the bench! How lowly do we think of the task of managers keeping every player happy if I may ask? And why do we all think Xhaka can never raise his game for the club? Arteta isn’t the first manager that had stuck with with him! Yes, we may think of ourselves so highly, but, with only the match days to see these players, how much… Read more »
China, Total agreement on your last comment. Rich, I love your stuff, but all this talk about “what if this player breaks, then his backup breaks” is over the top. Sure it could happen, of course…but you can’t plan life like that, and the truth in football is, even Mari did not want to stay as a 4th choice CB.. You think you’re going to find a quality, ball playing CB who is going to come play behind Saliba, White, and Gabriel… and be satisfied? Who is this player you think we can get? We have Holding who is content… Read more »
Akinzo,
Comment more frequently. Great stuff!
Did I hear that Chelsea are still paying Bakyoko, Barkley and others? Can’t unload them? I’d like to see their list and how it compares to ours.
If the Kroenkes are okay with the fee so am I. It seems to be more about getting players off than how much we get for them. As we all know, the issue we’ve had over the last few years is that it’s difficult to get much of a fee for a player who isn’t playing that well/is overpaid in relation to their contribution/their contract is running out/ they’re axing. In a year or so as long as we don’t go silly with salaries, we’ll be upgrading decent players to go to the next level. Our cast offs will be… Read more »
⏳📝 Saka
⏳📝 Saliba
⏳⬅️ Tielemens
⏳➡️ Multiple!!
Come on Arsenal, let’s get it done and put a cherry on this summer
i don’t think it will be surprising if xhaka’s red cards and errors leading to goal drop significantly this season. i thought it would be refreshing for the squad to have him moved on but i don’t think its a huge deal if he stays especially in the form he’s shown this preseason. Things change over time, a big part of living. ridiculous but not surprising that some on here see changing one’s mind as a negative and sign of weakness
Marko, it’s that not far a stretch to say Saliba’s ‘parent club’ arranged an excellent loan where he excelled, record passes, young player of the year, French caps etc.
If he’d stayed with us and he’d been unhappy being in England at a difficult time for him personally, deaths in the family and Covid at the age of 19/20, would his development have been as great?
I wouldn’t call that mental gymnastics.
I wanted him to stay but he’s a brilliant player now, that seems obvious so all’s good(as long as he signs an extension!).
Did I hear that Chelsea are still paying Bakyoko, Barkley and others? Can’t unload them? I’d like to see their list and how it compares to ours.
So arsenal ‘s record sale is 34 million for Oxlade Chamberlain while Chelsea ‘s is 104 million for Hazard. They’ve beaten our record 7 times already. So let’s not compare
How many loans did Torriera have?
How many opportunities to impress and get the loaning club to keep,him?
Maybe he’s not as good as we all think
For some reason, AM and Florientina saw him for one season…still said no thanks.
I swear he’ll self sabotage the Turkey move in three months after eating manties and kebabs.
He’ll be moaning loudly until they tell him `to eff off.
Man needs to be in South America ti be happy.
Xhaka will be decent as long as he has quality players around him. That’s more likely as we now have two decent LBs and another great CB.
I’ll still be nervous if Partey gets injured and would prefer to see Zinchenko and Tielemans hold the midfield. Elneny and Xhaka together makes me concerned, unless it’s against weaker opposition.
Will Tielesman be halos to be back up to Xhaka/Partey?
It’s a relevant question because that will be his role at Arsenal, without CL football
Bob it’s literal mental gymnastics to attribute any sort of development of Saliba to Arsenal. When he was here we gave him zero mins meanwhile at St Etienne, Nice and Marseille he was played and developed. The whole well we sent him there argument is weak as best when you consider we didn’t know what to do with him when we actually had him here
We haven’t sold a player we really did not want to sell for a while… When we do sell a player important to us we’ll beat our record for sure 🙂
Marko, surely the point is we’re not alone in struggling to get rid of unwanted players.
We’ve not sold decent players when they’ve had two years left on their contracts and they’ve been allowed to run down their contracts.
We’ve been particularly poor at acquisitions at times so getting rid of them as been tough!
Xhaka used to be inconsistent, even poor for us and had discipline issues. I would say his performances have been better for some time now and his preseason form looks excellent.
I don’t mind him anymore, I even think he will have a good season.
What matters is team chemistry and Xhaka appears to play a key role in that regard, so all is well that ends well as far as I’m concerned.
It’s like Arteta, I used to be one his fiercest critics on here but I will gladly admit he and Edu have done a fantastic job recently.
China I’ve shown you Tierney’s injury history, if we’re banking on him staying fit, we’re taking a big gamble. Zinchenko can’t play 60 games, he can’t play 3 x a week during the run in. Gabriel can’t play 60 games, and Holding can’t play in the way we need him too, participative in the bigger games, if we’d got a point at Spurs last season, we edge into 4th. If we’d beaten Leicester at home in 2020/21, we’d have finished 6th, ahead of Spurs, + Leicester, those are the margins. Partey probably can’t play more than 40 games, he could… Read more »
Marko,
Did Arsenal arrange an excellent loan with Marseilles so Saliba could play pretty much every game and develop really well?
If you own the player and you are sending him out to another club on loan you are developing him.
Whether he plays games with the owning club or goes out on loan he is being developed by that owning club if he plays matches for either.
The whole squad has improved including xhaka, I don’t see him as a liability.
Guendouzi, Torrera, Lacazzete, AMN, Mavropanos and Leno – 6 players who could have been sold for good money have been or likely to be sold for peanuts. We let Lacazzete run down his contract. Guen lost his value because of non-negotiable shit. Toerrera grossly mismanaged. He started off well as a DM, Emery pushed him up the pitch and the rest is history. Mavropanos was clearly a talented player but we put a buy out clause in for a paltry 3M. Leno was demoted to no 2 when he could have competed with Ramsdale for no 1 spot and retained… Read more »
After Kasper Schmeichel, Nice have just agreed terms with …. Aaron Ramsey !
Adams, unless his weaknesses get exposed by players that don’t compliment him (I’m not saying players should be telling him ‘You’re the man Granit’ or such like!).
I will smile to the heavens if Youri Tielemans end up here this TW. However, the perception that he can stand in for Partey to me sounds erroneous. Ndidi, is the standout DM at City, and I’ve not seen any calls for him to join us. In fact, it would be ridiculous to have him and Pastry in same club. Players of that ilk are rare and are in high demand. He was out injured for much of last season and we all know how Leicester fared! Arguing that YT would come here to play DM seems very strange. What… Read more »
Marko view.
= Arsenal bad!
It’s all so tiresome.
If Partey is unavailable I think it’s most likely that we’ll change our system as there is no like-for-like player. Tielemans would be better than Xhaka in the more progressive areas of the pitch and would play alongside Zinchenko if KT was available.
surely the point is we’re not alone in struggling to get rid of unwanted players.
Yeah but we really fucking struggle. Liverpool on the other hand getting good money for Nico Williams and the like while we procrastinate on AMN et all shows that.
As for the Saliba stuff I can’t give arsenal credit when they had him for half a season never used him and didn’t know what to do with him.
A sorry tale TR7!
I agree Marko that was poor by Arsenal -a waste of half a season and his development was stunted.
Last 18 months though as been more than fine. Still no acknowledgement?
Ishola,
You’re a dishonest person.
Because you can’t admit if Xhaka has a excellent match, not even once, not even in preseason…
You have to lie, obfuscate by accusing me of calling him an excellent player…
I used excelling to referring to the 1 games performance. Everyone can see that.
But he is a good player, and a leader.
Reality hurts, so you lie mind try to dance around subjects.
If you can’t win a debate, just give up.
Like I said, let go of the hate, try to enjoy some Arsenal.
“Ndidi, is the standout DM at City, and I’ve not seen any calls for him to join us.”
Ndidi is perhaps one of the best DMs in the league but he has been suffering from a long term injury. He is still injured as we speak. So obviously out of contention as far as transfer window is concerned.
Tom,
Good examples you cite with White, Saliba. I won’t argue.
And I know that pass was a small thing, but I know there’s a bias here against White. It’s something I react to a lot. It’s not always a direct criticism of him, but often avoidance of credit for a guy who had a good season for us, regardless of his price.
A certain Mr Santi Cazorla just contributed to a winning bet for me in the Qatar Stars League.
Match was 2-2 and I had a bet on the match at that time that there would be over five goals in the match.
Match finished 4-3 and Cazorla was one of the scorers of the last three goals scored
BobN16
Are you aware that Saliba and his team chose the two clubs he’s spent time out on loans; Nice and Marseille? We didn’t have leverage after leaving him in the U-23s for 5 months.
Marko is right, we’ve had very little role in his development since Raul signed him.
Arteta and Edu had set up the defense as though Saliba didn’t exist.
Why spend a club record fee for defender when we had one outstanding talent on the club’s ranks.
Let’s not pretend that Salian’s development was let of some grand Dec making.
****Let’s not pretend that Saliba’s development was let of some grand decision making.
Tuffers
You were happy enough with Xhaka being sold this summer.
End of discussion.
Thank you Marko,
There is a loser here who I will deal with later
who will still call you named because he thinks being
a sheep equates to being a real fan
Dissenter “Let’s not pretend that Saliba’s development was let of some grand decision making.” Whether it was “grand” decision making or not what happened was he was loaned out by the owning club which aided his development which is par the course for all clubs looking to bring on young players. Whether loaning or playing them themselves. We still don’t know how the end story will go with Saliba anyway. Atm it’s looking nice and dandy but there is always the possibilty that Arteta will drop him again at a later date as we progress into the season which may… Read more »
Names*
Nigel If Wenger hadn’t had your attitude with Wilshere, Ramsey, Rosicky, Arteta + Ox in the summer of 2015 Then we might have won the title that season, and certainly been more competitive over that period, you didn’t need a crystal ball to recognise that lot were going to get injured at some point. Injury prone players are a nightmare, if we don’t adjust accordingly, then it’s likely going to bite us at some stage, it’s also about having consistency in the way we defend as a team. We were a few players away in 2007/08, 2010/11, and again in… Read more »
Still no acknowledgement?
Yes I acknowledge that he developed brilliantly at St Etienne, Nice and Marseille
Treat it like mens and woman’s tennis . I enjoy both. I don’t get caught up on whether the top woman seed could win against the mens 50th seed. I simply don’t care nor do the majority It’s pretty obvious they may bolt on the world cups together at some point and possibly the Euros Can’t believe some gammon complexion heavy panting keyboard warrior is talking about the woman’s chubby legs when it is damn obvious they’d out run him , out play him , out tackle him and probably batter him. Calling out female athletes like that is just… Read more »
Rich, understand why you want Arsenal to have a better player than Holding at reserve LCB but it’s very unlikely happen. We’ve done quite a lot of business already and one or maybe two more in would be a serious outlay.
I think your argument would be stronger if we were in the CL not the EL.
We have enough defenders already… The midfield should be the priority and maybe a capable RB while we are still in the market but tf do we need another CB for?
Torreira for €7 mil euros is a joke really. But we are looking to have a fire sale and get rid of them it seems. Leno and Torreira will be out by the end of the week. Balogun and Tavarez loaned out this week too. That leaves Pepe, Mari, Bellerin, AMN and Nelson. And so far we have recouped 13 mil. I think teams will take a punt on Nelson and AMN when deadline day nears. We probably will cancel Bellerin’s contract. Mari will be sold if we can get 3 to 5 mil too. And Pepe might go out… Read more »
Bob
“I think your argument would be stronger if we were in the CL not the EL.”
Exactly , I’m afraid Rich has a case of verbal diahorrea and is stuck in repeat mode atm.
Marko
What defeats me is why you complain about loaning Saliba. It’s common practice for big Clubs to loan youngsters, that way they get minutes on the pitch they wouldn’t get at the big club. I could understand if he didn’t get those minutes at Marseilles, etc.
Or if he were useless, a waste of big money.
Marko is just the angry Grandpa that can’t accept things are changing and being done better so he will always keep on bleating into the void that its all bad. As much as I don’t like Xhaka as a player even I can’t argue he’s been restricted from being in positions to tank us every week and if the manager loves him wtf can we do about it. Just accept it and move on. We have a squad of what 23 players and he’s just one. Just stop talking about him is my take. He plays well one match whatever… Read more »
Englandbest
Saliba would have played 30 odd games last season, taking into account tomiyasu injury, white and Gabriel out due to injury or suspension, plus domestic cup comps, and who knows , there is a good chance that saliba made the centre back position his own last season when you take into consideration that he had already shown to be much classier on the ball than our present defenders..
The fact that Saliba looks mustard now is because we allowed him to go on loan rather than throwing him in. Look how his mate got injured being overplayed at Leicester. He was successful and named young player of the year and now is back and fully integrated into the first team. This is a clear success story and all the bad rumours are put to bed so why keep talking about the past that clearly wasn’t the case. I blame the media and all these false dailymail daily mirror or whatever stories that people just lap up as truth.… Read more »
Leno to Fulham. Torrreira to Galatasaray. Bellerín to Betis. Tavares to Marseille. Marí to Monza. Balogun to Reims. Even if we’re not taking in as much cash as we hoped, it still feels good to make space.
I agree we couldn’t sell a fridge in the desert but we do also ( hopefully ) save the wages of those players on what is left of their contracts . Following that misogynistic garbage earlier may I say how good it was to see players not diving for penalties or screaming like a stuck pig every time they were tackled. It was brilliant to see a defender who was imperious without having to go to ground to tackle and which first teasmers at our place would you back to score Ella Toone’s chip? Not many I can think of… Read more »
Pierre If Tierney + Tomiyasu get injured for sustained periods throughout the season, and Holding’s inclusion, alongside burning out other defenders, who we need to overplay as a result, hurts our chances of success at key stages of the season?….. And If Holding pushing up in games costs us vital points, or gets us eliminated from quarter + semi finals, after putting ourselves into competitive positions?…. Then don’t say I didn’t warn you, Holding isn’t equipped to do what we need him too, Tierney’s fitness is a major issue, and Tomiyasu + Partey’s fitness are a real concern. We potentially… Read more »
Chelsea are now after Cucurella?
They are are now a proper shitty club, operating with no plan.
Rich
Where do you want to park another central defender?
If Arteta wanted a 5th CB, he would have kept Pablo Mari
Rich
‘ And If Holding pushing up in games costs us vital points, or gets us eliminated from quarter + semi finals, after putting ourselves into competitive positions’
If that were to happen…and when it’s happened in the past
It will be on Arteta for not setting up tactics with player’s strengths and weaknesses in mind.
Rich Tomiyasu and Tierney can and have played centre back in a back 3 , on top of White , Saliba , gabriel and holding at right back we have white , tomiyasu and cedric, left back tierney and zinchenko plus tomiyasu is comfortable playing on the left The fact that we have options means that Tierney and tomiyasu will not play every game and possibly only used as subs for many games. And as Bob said , we are in the europa league , meaning we could play our 3rd team and probably still qualify from the group stages… Read more »
Dissenter
“Rich
Where do you want to park another central defender?
If Arteta wanted a 5th CB, he would have kept Pablo Mari”
Please ….don’t encourage him by bringing mari into the conversation
Ishola, What’s this “end of discussion” mic drop you’re trying?… who TF are you really? …not so cool on an opinion blog where responses count. I want Xhaka upgraded with someone more suited to the position he’s currently playing. I was hoping the Roma deal would go through last Summer. I’ve been totally consistent for a long time. A new midfielder has been my biggest concern all summer. For quality and depth. Stop trying to play “gotcha” with me. When I’m wrong I’ll admit it, and when I change an opinion I’ll always state it. No shame in doing that.… Read more »
Chelsea have been all over the place through out the transfer window. Deligt, Fofana, Kounde, Ake, Gravidol, Pavard, Kimpembe have all been linked to them as a CB target. Kounde and Deligt chose Barcelona and Bayern respectively. Ake to chose to stay at City. And they are having trouble with the other targets. The forwards have also been as variable as anything. Sterling (which they got), Jesus, Raphinha (who chose Barcelona), Dembele who chose to stay at Barcelona, Gnabry who chose to stay at Bayern have all been targets. It seems a little chaotic and unplanned. But you can understand… Read more »
Diss
I don’t want a 5th centre back, I want us to dispose of Holding + Mari + Bellerin
Then sign a left sided centre half, who can also play as an inverted left back.
Full of contradictions Tuffers.
Quite difficult to read tbh.
It’s quite possible to praise Xhaka for recent performances and still want an upgrade.
Pierre You’re the one who previously made the case for Mari, not me. Your understanding of how teams press and + stay high is non-existent, you might want to sit this one out. You previously needed it explained to you that pressing was about directing the opposition, shutting down passing lanes, and having defenders who make the pitch smaller, by stepping into midfield. I remember you previously not having a clue when I explained to you about inverted full backs stepping into midfield in possession. You think football is a simple game, if it was that simple then Guardiola wouldn’t… Read more »
It’s quite possible to praise Xhaka for recent performances and still want an upgrade
When people say recent performances do they realize they’re talking about presason friendlies?
Rob Holding is very useful if we are leading 1-0 against a top team with 20 or 30 minutes to go. We won’t always be able to impose our high line for 90 minutes. Holding can help us here. I think we should keep him unless we receive a great offer.
Pablo Mari is a weaker version of our best defenders but Holding actually gives us a different option when we need it.
Marko, there were games last season too.
Let’s put a little context on the situations of Leno (who I would have kept this season regardless), Torreira, Bellerin etc. I don’t doubt we’ve made mistakes on the selling side but there has been the larger picture of the lockdown and the massive decrease in spending ability of those teams without billionaire owners or that can bank large streams of revenues. It means a team like Arsenal that pays Top 6 wages is going to find it especially hard to move on players to teams below our playing and spending level. Of course we would have loved to have… Read more »
So is the bar for Xhaka, simply not being calamitous?
Jeez. You’ve gotta be kidding me.
No surprise that every coach that’s retained him has failed to make Top Four and has been eventually fired.
That’s the biggest Star ever!!!
So is the bar for Xhaka, simply not being calamitous?
That’s not fair at least give him something realistic to strive for
Strenge that there’s so much focus on defence today on the blog. Here’s our probably depth chart: RB: Tomiyasu, White, Cedric RCB: Saliba, White, Holding, Tomiyasu LCB: Gabriel, Saliba, White, Holding, Tomiyasu LB: Tierney, Zinchenko, Cedric That’s also assuming that we move on AMN, who we know can do a job for us at RB and LB. We’re really set for this season at the back. The focus should be on providing more midfield possession/control with the addition of a player like Tielemans. He would be perfect because he can offer a Xhaka alternative alongside Partey and I have no… Read more »
.
MarkoAugust 1, 2022 19:46:01
It’s quite possible to praise Xhaka for recent performances and still want an upgradeWhen people say recent performances do they realize they’re talking about presason friendlies?
I am in this camp I want him gone butt he has had a few decent games
You know at some point though he will shit the bed as usual
Rich wants us to sign another CB who has quality but will also be happy to sit on the bench
Rich and his obsession with a ball playing CB is quite something. So fixated to go toe to toe with City and Pool that he forgets that the first step is to get top 4 and then think we can start to think about City and Pool. If Partey misses large chunk of our season we wouldn’t get top 4 even with 10 ball playing CBs.
Rich
“You’re the one who previously made the case for Mari, not me.”
I think you will find that it was you who was rambling on about how Mari/Holding were so crap , i just happen to point out that the Holding / Mari partnership only conceded 5 goals in the 10 games they played together in the 2020/21 season…which included games against the league champions, the champions of europe and 2 games against the team that won the europa cup.
And no , I didn’t say i wanted mari to start ahead of our present centre backs
Pierre
Majority of fans don’t give up on players just for the sake of it.
They witness plays from the player that they don’t like.
This is the case with Mari in particular.
Ishola, Karsa gets it, but he’s not too busy sh1tting on Arsenal to understand, as you are. One more time since you’re slow. Upgrade number 8 … that’s a Xhaka upgrade. Keep Xhaka around, unless he’s not satisfied with less playing time, in that case, allow him to leave. Not that difficult. Repeating myself just for you as a courtesy, or else you’ll misquote me and pull one of your fake, baseless attacks. Marko, I think we’ve all been praising lots of our players for their PRESEASON performances. Including Zinchenko, Saliba, Jesus… almost everyone really.. But you’d say that Xhaka… Read more »
Only 4 sleeps to go😛