Welcome to FriYAY people; we have lots of things to talk about. But first, take a moment to congratulate yourself for getting through a week of international break things. Ok, we feeling good?
Let’s get into it.
Jack Wilshere has been linked with a move to Colorado Rapids in MLS. The same conference as my team. I visited the away day there. Loads of nice people, close to the mountains, a team that is not doing so well – plenty of food for thought. Jack Wilshere bringing Arsenal football to America? I don’t hate it people. I’m glad he’s pursuing all options and it’s interesting to see Josh K roll out his young rookie coach strategy on another club.
There are some rumblings that Arsenal will have to sell to buy in January. John Cross reckons Ivan T could be on the list for Arsenal, but it ain’t gonna be easy, and it ain’t gonna be cheap.
My gut on this one? If we’re selling anyone it’s going to be Aaron Ramsdale. I think his cheering from the dugout and ‘I WILL FIGHT FOR MY PLACE’ vibes will last for about 4 more games when he realizes the path back into the first team is blocked barring a massive injury to David Raya. He’s a great keeper, he’ll have a market value, the question is whether anyone is in that sort of need in January. £40m would be my number, but that’s because I’m biased. It’ll be interesting to see if Brentford might be interested in him? Not sure their current keeper is up to much – Aaron will take minutes – it could make sense.
England gave a debut to Eddie Nketiah but he didn’t start ahead of Ollie Watkins. The Villa man has been on fire this season, so deserved his place. But Eddie getting minutes means Chris Hughton’s dream of taking him to Ghana is now OVER. Still, for all the Eddie slanderers, it’s nice to see him get an England cap. He has a long way to go to be an Arsenal first choice striker, but he’s had lots of minutes and he’s played in a team that’s winning. Arsenal doesn’t win with 10 men, so he’s clearly at a very high level. He has to score more goals if he wants to be taken seriously for England when Kane is out of contention.
Newcastle is apparently eyeing up Emile Smith Rowe in January for £50m. If we get a bid like that, no doubt we’ll sell, the question would be… does he make them stronger? To be honest, I don’t think that would be a question Arsenal would care about asking, we’d just sell him and be done with it if money like that crossed the table. The only way we don’t see him exit is if he starts delivering with the minutes he’s given. I watched Tom Brady do one o of those ‘Here’s how to be like me’ TikTok posts. He said he was only given 2 minutes to practice with the first team. It pissed him off. Then a coach said ‘treat those 2 minutes like it was your Superbowl. So he did. He went really hard at it, brought energy to training, then he started getting 4 minutes. Then 4 turned into 20. Then he became a KING! You get the gist… Emile has to think like that if he wants to get back to the promised land. Or he could just take a fat move to Newcastle.
Finally, Victor Oshimen has fallen out with Napoli after their social media manager called him a coconut on TikTok. An absolutely WILD thing for someone to think, let alone post on the Serie A Champions social page. Needless to say, the striker wants out, and Arsenal has been linked as a suitor. I love the player, but I can’t see him exiting for less than £120m. Is he £60m better than Ivan Toney? Who knows. But Italian papers say we might swap Victor for Jesus. If the Italians can’t be arsed to put together a plausible swap, it’s not worth dreaming about.
Ok, that’s me done. If you want some HAWT Patreon content, we just dropped a special Q&A below.
📛New Patreon📛@iJohnnyCochrane and Pedro jump into a special Q&A and talk Emile Smith Rowe, the state of referees, and the context of our start this season.https://t.co/GS0uBK9p4z
— LE GROVE (@LeGrove) October 13, 2023
Lauren – oh where were you against West Ham last season. That penalty would have been buried and it’d been 3 points at the Hammers . The man never missed a pen
On match against ManCity –
“If City is not the best in the world, they are one of the best teams, especially in pressing and in transitions. So we had to play a bit more direct, so to speak.
“In the first half, we tried to play a bit more from the back with some scares. In the second half, we changed the way we played, to lure them a bit more but with the possibility we had, to look for the back of their defence. With direct balls, we hurt them a lot.”
“It’s something I have internalised, but it’s also the coach’s orders,” Raya says. “What he doesn’t want is for us to start hitting balls — we have to invite a player (opponent to press) to come out a little bit. I’m the free man, and once a striker or someone jumps me, that leaves a free man on the pitch, and we have to look for superiority.
That’s the way the coach tells me to play.
“The fans aren’t used to us goalkeepers having the ball for a long time and if they (the opponents) don’t press, you have to wait for the moment to pass the ball. It’s a risk that we take, but I take the responsibility that if, one day, there’s a mistake I’ll raise my hand. There’s no way around it.”
Chelsea game is massive they’ll think they’re owed a win after us finally putting to bed that pissy hoodoo over us. Chelsea will probably grab 6th and may well hold at least one of the top 6 to a draw or grab a win. So far it’s UTD and City Downed. Chelsea away would be excellent to add it to the list
Great shout FB, Nacho was a fantastic player, both at full-back and centre-back…
GoonerDave, if Henderson had played in a way that justified his place, I’d guess the booing would have been less obvious. I’m sure he wasn’t booed for just for one thing!
Arsenal are currently + 2 from the corresponding fixtures last season…. But 3 of those points against City could potentially count double.
Our next 10 league fixtures are:
Chelsea Away:
Sheffield United Home:
Newcastle Away:
Burnley Home:
Brentford Away:
Wolves Home:
Luton Away:
Villa Away:
Brighton Home:
Liverpool Away:
If you swap out Burnley – Southampton
Sheffield United – Leeds
Luton – Leicester
We took 23/30 points from the corresponding fixtures last season, matching that would be decent, considering there’s 6 away and 4 at home.
Anything north of 23/30 would be an excellent haul.
Nacho Monreal is our best LB in the Emirates era. Jury’s out on Zinna if he’ll replace him in the ideal team since the summer of 2006.
Kind of symbolic Cole left the exact summer we moved.
Not worried about chelsea. They are like utd. Shite but psychologically we show them too much respect. Play the game we play, and we can beat them easily.
I’m not taking Chelsea or any other team for granted. Especially now they’ve gained a little confidence.
Since early last season every team sees us as one of the top dogs, and they come at us with all they’ve got. That’s why you see teams like Newcastle and Spurs celebrating draws with us like major victories.
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, David Raya is asked if he is at the peak of his career. His answer is unequivocal.
“Yes,” he says. “I have taken an important step at club level. I am at one of the most important clubs in the world, so that is an incentive and gives you pride, competing in the Champions League, which was one of my objectives.”
His £3million ($3.7m) season-long loan could become a permanent move for £27m and, when asked if he would seal the deal now if given the chance, the 28-year-old does not hesitate: “Yes, I would have done it yesterday (if I could).”
The move had been brewing for a while. “In the summer, both personally and as a club, we wanted to leave Brentford. I had one year left on my contract and the club and I wanted to take the step. Then I had the opportunity to sign for Arsenal.”
“I had a few conversations with Mikel before making the signing because it was complicated, the financial issue and so on,” says Raya. “He was one of the coaches I wanted to work with, his philosophy, how he has transformed Arsenal with the way he has played and it was very important to have him as a coach.”
But did Arteta ever suggest to Raya he would be No 1 over Ramsdale?
“I’m going to fight for it. Arteta gives me the confidence to be there, that he wanted to have two top players in each position, and it was up to me to find the time and fight to get the minutes. I don’t want to think beyond that. If there are rotations, as there are in any position, I’m going to help on and off the pitch.”
On his relationship with Aaron Ramsdale:
“The relationship? It’s very good,” adds Raya. “At the end of the day, we are mates, which is the important thing. We have a very healthy relationship. There are no problems.
“We push each other every day in training: when he’s a little bit down, I push him, and when I’m a little bit down (he does the same). We train three goalkeepers, four at the most, for hours a week, and you need that kind of relationship because otherwise, the training is not going to go well.
“I don’t like to look to the future, I like to look at the day-to-day… but the perfect end would be to win a title with Arsenal, to be called up to the national team for the European Championship, and to have a good tournament.”
The 1-0 victory against Manchester City came partly due to a tweak in their planning, says Raya:
“If City is not the best in the world, they are one of the best teams, especially in pressing and in transitions. So we had to play a bit more direct, so to speak.
“In the first half, we tried to play a bit more from the back with some scares. In the second half, we changed the way we played, to lure them a bit more but with the possibility we had, to look for the back of their defence. With direct balls, we hurt them a lot.”
One of the notable ‘scares’ came when Julian Alvarez closed down Raya in the first half, and almost scored from the deflected clearance. There were also moments when the Spaniard would put a foot on the ball to bait his opponents. It is, however, all part of the plan.
“It’s something I have internalised, but it’s also the coach’s orders,” Raya says. “What he doesn’t want is for us to start hitting balls — we have to invite a player (opponent to press) to come out a little bit. I’m the free man, and once a striker or someone jumps me, that leaves a free man on the pitch, and we have to look for superiority. That’s the way the coach tells me to play.
“The fans aren’t used to us goalkeepers having the ball for a long time and if they (the opponents) don’t press, you have to wait for the moment to pass the ball. It’s a risk that we take, but I take the responsibility that if, one day, there’s a mistake I’ll raise my hand. There’s no way around it.”
“My grandfather (Joaquin) has been a very important figure because he was the one who took me to training many nights in Cornella (a town on the outskirts of Barcelona),” says Raya, his eyes sparkling at the memory. “To have my grandfather at the presentation of a club like Arsenal, which is so, so, so familiar (well known) and the detail they had with him to give him the shirt, sign it and have him there… that is a source of pride and he was delighted. You can see that at the presentation he gets emotional and a couple of tears come to his eyes. But after that, he was super-happy and watches all the games at home with my father when they can’t go to London.”
to his eyes. But after that, he was super-happy and watches all the games at home with my father when they can’t go to London.”
As for the future, Raya is keen to win the title with Arsenal and also cement his place in the Spain squad, with Unai Simon still the starting goalkeeper. He does not rule out the chance to play in La Liga either, having arrived in England aged 16.
“Right now, I don’t have it in mind,” he says, “Would I like to play in La Liga? Yes, of course… but at the moment I’m at Arsenal, I’m very happy, and we’ll see what happens in the next few years.”
“Lauren – oh where were you against West Ham last season. That penalty would have been buried and it’d been 3 points at the Hammers . The man never missed a pen”
Actually if memory serves me right, Lauren did miss a penalty, at Highbury against Fulham. I was in the Clock End that night.
Will always remember the one against Spurs though, 2002 title run.
Thanks rap
If you live in London, a cushty job available with Arsenal. It sounds outstanding, getting paid real £££ to produce six second tiktoks and help frimmy plan this weeks carpool colney vid –
——–
“We’re hiring a social media producer to join us
You’ll be responsible for:
– Producing content for our club channels
– Reporting at men’s, women’s and academy matches
– Planning/conducting interviews with players and staff live in London,”
jwl
Have they fired David Frimpon, aka Frimmy?
He’s been doing that for two years now and has a cult following
It sounds like job to enhance frimmy and whoever else work our social media team, Dissenter. I thought frimmy was frimpong until a few weeks ago when they did intv together, no idea who frimmy is now but he does make decent vids to watch when im bored with work.
Sounds like Pedro should get his resume sent to Arsenal… asap.. Right up his alley. and now he has experience from first place team in the MLS.
Although, would probably kill Le Grove.. not sure they would let him run an independent operation with competing content and opinions at the same time.
https://youtu.be/2HMfN0T2JuQ?si=SzxU4GiBgWvGDhQO
Excellent discussion of Ødegaard.. a great stat analysis with clips.
Funny how Declan Rice used to leave West Ham for England to enjoy playing with much better players.
Now he leaves Arsenal to play with mostly inferior players at England. He probably can’t wait to return.
Midwest, think my chances of a move to Arsenal disappeared in 2009
The Israeli Defense Forces just deleted a tweet gloating about bombing a hospital where they murdered hundreds of people. They are a bunch of scumbags
OK Peds.. As your agent.. though just need to make sure you explore all options. haha
Selfishly, would rather have you doing your thing, here anyhow.
Dream10,
Difficult for any honest person to disagree with that sentiment.
“Excellent discussion of Ødegaard.. a great stat analysis with clips.”
Unsurprisingly 95% of the clips were from last season as he must have had difficulty finding any decent clips from this season.
he is basically trying to say that Odegaard has turned into a hardworking , tough tackling midfielder who’s lack of creativity is irrelevant.
He didn’t really sound convincing in quoting Odegaard’s goal contributions for this season , saying he is doing better than last season.
Obviously he thinks all Arsenal fans are as dumb as Nigel as Odegaard’s goal contributions from open play this season in the league is one goal ,scored against united
The inclusion of penalties gives a false impression and reeks of desperation from the narrator.
In saying that it is an interesting analysis of Odegaard’s performances this season, he is basically highlighting what I have been saying this season , and that is Odegaard’s final ball has been poor and if you put his lack of creativity alongside our other no 8 Havertz, it could prove to be a problem as we can’t keep relying on our defence to see us over the line..
The narrator believes that Odegaard’s lack of creativity isn’t a problem and believes that he is happy playing a different role for the team .
Personally, I don’t agree with this as I don’t think his role is much different to last season and I definitely do not think that Odegaard is happy with his lack of creativity.
A creative player like Odegaard lives and breathes for creating opportunities for his team mates, you don’t have the skiĺl and technique of an Odegaard and be happy with being talked about as a hardworking, ball winning midfielder which is basically what the narrator alluded to ..
We have more or less accepted that Odegaard’s performance level drops when playing tougher opponents, what we do expect is him to dominate weaker teams, Chelsea this weekend is a game I expect Odegaard to turn it on as chelsea are an ill disciplined side who will afford Odegaard time and space on the ball , unless pochettino decides to put gallagher on him and then we will see if Odegaard has this new found physicality and strength that the narrator is so convinced he has aquired.
Easy for any informed person to disagree with that sentiment, Ken, since it looks like Hamas bombed themselves but want day of jihad anyways.
Ya pierre the clips from this season are him taking rugby hits and ankle breakers…
After last season
That’s according to the Iraelis jwl. How very surprising.
cool more israel bad palestine good commentary.
raw passion. deep insight. well informed geo politics. awesome! what else ya got anons!? i’m super interested in whats on reddit and what all the edgelords are into.
Why scoff at penalty goals when it is rather difficult for players to put them away consistently? Our collapse last season could have been prevented if we scored a penalty against West Ham.
If Odegaard has scored a couple of pens for us then we are better of for it, no?
Israelis official statements as a source of accurate information might’ve taken a bit of a hit when they accused Hamas of having beheaded babies.
I guess the actual facts just weren’t gruesome enough.
Zach and jwl, if you have those photos of beheaded babies the Israeli government sure could used them now.
Why you so keen on seeing decapitated babies, Tom, would you find it exhilarating to see photos of dead Jews?
The dumbest thing about the attacks from Hamas are that Palestine had probably never had more sympathy from outside the country until then – with an increasingly large number of people generally wanting things to improve for them
So after taking loads of hostages and killing Israeli innocents at a canter they’ve just set back the sympathy vote for anyone who is paying attention back 20 years and have given Israel a free pass to exact revenge.
Did they really think 1000 guys with AK47s and some little rockets were going to get a decisive victory against the Israeli army? A catastrophic mistake which is and will increasingly result in the deaths of innocent Palestinians as Israel strikes back.
What a shit show
ZacharseOctober 13, 2023 20:07:44
Tom feels that decapitating toddlers is a justified response by perfectly sane soldiers to the situation
almost as bad as being a closet spud fan
im kidding
———————————
is this the post you’re still pearl clutching over oh wise and adult one??
ffs you are a strange dude.
funny the thought from the other day if i remember right was that israel is the only one who
a) doesn’t follow the geneva convention
b) plays the press like a violin
c) should examine their past actions more closely and move forward differently and w more restraint
this is the exact kind of preciousness i take issue with. willing to overlook anything on one side and nothing on the other.
fact is its war and its been war for MUCH longer than bibi has been around corrupting their politics- and now he’s getting what was always coming w the attitude and path he chose. Not that there was ever going to be a different outcome, imo its just as much about historical imperialism as it is about historical anti semitism
Doesn’t make israel wrong for wanting to defend itself at all costs from enemies and proxies on all sides who think the holocaust didn’t go far enough and want to try again- oh and sorry to those of you who think that since its been 80+ yrs- the holocaust shouldnt be brought up in this context- some hipster academic shit
In the same breath, its pathetic to assume palestine has a good reason to snap into desperation mode and flail like they’ve been doing. what they’ve done is the worst possible thing they could if protecting their people was a priority- or really anything other than a fight to a genocidal death on one side or the other. But soft ass spaghetti spine westerners doing the textbook “useful idiot” routine play right into it over and over with the classic “WHAT ELSE CAN THEY DO!? ISRAEL IS EVIL!!! WHATEVER THEY DO IS JUSTIFIED!” ya, well *pffff* that’s, like your opinion maaaaaaannnn
just make sure you’ve got a good jeweler to fix that pearl necklace when the conversation is over- oh but – nevermind…
jwl, no, I certainly wouldn’t.
And I’ve seen plenty of those while visiting the Aushwitz concentration camp, as probably everyone should.
Dont feel special dear, I shit on everyone when I feel they deserve it, even my own. Regardless whether or not their values align closely to mine, as they do in the case of Israelis.
Because facts still matter, and everyone who’d picked up the decapitated babies story, courtesy of Israel, has walked it back by now.
Not Zach though, so I’m assuming he’s got the evidence.
Share it.
Please stop with the politics. Some people come here to avoid the harsh realities out there. Just to chat about football.
Avoid death/war/terrorism.
Guys the Israeli-Palestine debate will have no winners but only lead us down a very bad rabbit hole. I’m not averse to political discussions but this is a tinder box.
Leave it alone fellas. There are far too many dying in horrible ways and lives destroyed forever.
Again leave it alone.
For the good of the forum.
Jeez Pedro put out another article …
“Not Zach though, so I’m assuming he’s got the evidence.
Share it.”
tom do you speak english?
wtf do you think “I’M KIDDING” means
Don’t blame us. Blame the international break
Pedro has tapped out due to the international break
Who can blame him