I’m a subscriber and love it so thank you 🙏🏿 it’s 100% money well spent.
Wanted to say though how sound as f*ck that is, to be offering people a free years subscription that can’t afford it for whatever reason the may have 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾.
We’re blessed on here boys, nobody delivers this kind of content that make you feel even further that you’re part of the Arsenal family and more so I love the point blank refusal to not give up hope here, with a realistic look on how unfortunate the team have been on a number of things.
Please all remember you are a fan…
We love this club and I will support it till my dying days regardless
The whole back up/adequate rotation for Saka argument is kinda fair enough to me purely because everything goes through his side of the pitch therefore he's going to be worked so much more than other "world class" players who play constantly and rarely get injured. People talk about Salah at Liverpool but they also have Diaz and Gakpo and Robertson on the left and there's variations to their attack whereas at Arsenal we don't have a consistent or consistency at LW and we don't have a balanced LB. You address that and then you won't have Saka overworked and doubled up so much and that would free him up more.
All i can say is what a lot of us have been saying for a few seasons, now - a lack of adequate Saka cover will come back to haunt us.
Granted, he's generally be ever-present in his short career, but he's played mad minutes, he's our focal point and we've neglected buying RW cover.
Even once he returns, I will be so surprised if he doesnt suffer a recurrence. Rarely do we see hamstring injuries get the full recover time they deserve - especially with rapido players. Van der Ven is a recent example that comes to mind.
I remember it took Pedro Neto half a season to fully recover, and funny enough that because he fully nursed it over the 2024 spring/summer.
I would say that the best possible outcome for January would be someone like Gular or Adingra on loan. Two good players not playing enough football and have been linked previously. Outside of that I can't think of too many options. Would love to see Bakayoko or Gittens but PSV are top the eredivisie and would Dortmund sell midseason despite struggling? Both would cost an arm and a leg. One things for sure havertz on the right...oof
My point is that it's stupid to suggest that this injury is him getting a rest for two months and he'll be back raring to go. He's injured which means treatment which means no training no match sharpness for two months
Pedro “Arsenal operate as a brains trust”….then writes enough stuff to clearly show “it’s a brains we shouldn’t trust”. This all comes back to our owners who don’t have the ambition for the club. Most sensible fans knew Saka was overplayed but Arteta thinks it’s good to make him do an Iron Man trial in between games. Our squad injury record is terrible. What is going on in training? So far Arteta has taken us to second twice and blew it with poor decisions. We will finish 3rd or 4th at best this season. Our fans need to stop blaming luck and other teams for NOT beating our competition. Out crap fans rinse and moan about Spurs not beating Liverpool. Like they did last season when they flopped again City. What sort of fans do we have who think it’s up to other teams to win the league for us? These fans make Arsenal a banter club.
Saka had to be over played unfortunately as tross, Marti, Havertz and sterling have been sub par this season unfortunately. Not sure what choice Arteta had.
A part of me feels that this Saka injury, whilst terrible short term, could have been a lot worse (torn ACL or Achilles). The guy just turned 23 and has played high level football for club and country every 3 days for 5 years. It was not sustainable. I personally would not rush him back as hamstrings are notoriously problematic (ask Reece James). The goal is to have him peak over the next 4 years (when he's 27).
People might not want to hear it (including the manager and player) but I would keep him out the entire season. He should not play football until September 2025. Let him rest, eat Jollof every day, and just sit in the sun. Time for Martinelli, Trossard, Sterling and Nwaneri to step up.
Come on, Pedro, this childish snark of ‘luck’ at Liverpool is weak sauce. Top of both leagues they are competing in is sheer luck? What are you smoking? Slot inherited a good squad and has stabilised and calmed them down from the hyperactive peaks and troughs of the Klopp years, which is smart management. Their squad has depth and breadth, giving them options for injuries and tactical switches. Ours is far more uneven and often forced into Arteta’s micromanaged structures with less flexibility . Two days ago he was on the top five managers, now he is what, for over dependency on the most creative powerhouse in our side?
Still, he could learn from the unexpected bonus of Jesus sparking to life because he wanted to rest Kai. Not just because of his uptick in form, but more for the fact Jesus creativity and pace has shown how deadly dull Havertz is, and how unimaginative he is. So maybe there are other combinations he hasn’t tried which will equally enliven us, now Saka is having the enforced rest he probably needed. That is what I would like to see, shaking the dice and refreshing our stale tactical approach. We badly needed it anyway, so let’s see what Arteta can come up with - the ball’s in his court now. I believe our players can be more creative and exciting when they aren’t so stifled by the control freakery of his approach. I want to be surprised by him - can he do it?
@Pedro Auba hit the ground running at Arsenal, scoring at least 10 goals in his first few months from memory. Arshavin had a more transformative impact having joined in a January window, however, he did play in a prime banter years Arsenal side. Elsewhere, Liverpool probably have the best record of bringing players in during winter transfer windows. Suarez, Van Dijk and Coutinho all joined in the previous seasons. Suarez was very effective in the backend of their season and VVD also slotted in very nicely. Despite my feelings towards him, Bruno Fernandes deserves a special shout. Having joined United from Sporting, he hit 8 goals and 7 assists for United in the league, 3 goals and 1 assist in the Europa and a cup goal. Probably the last good signing United made… so there could be hope. Depends how much money we have available - maybe Lookman is gettable (best form so far this season and playing at a high level. Kudus should be motivated to jump ship but the Gs and As aren’t there right now. Signing Isak at this stage with the form he’s in and consequently the fee that Newcastle would demand seems almost impossible.
Also complaining that we have the thinnest squad after selling and loaning out a bunch of attacking players is lame as hell
ESR, Vieira, Nelson, Eddie were all offloaded.
Arteta needs to stop making excuses for a situation he has guided us towards and put his money where his mouth is and guide us successfully past this hurdle until Saka returns
Zero sympathy from me. In fact less than that, he is in no small part accountable for it. He needs to stop moaning, get his head down and manage it. Starting immediately
Pedro pretty sure you wrote in the summer that the window was a success and those of us who thought letting three attackers leave without replacing them was poor business were wrong. And that Sterling was a stinky piece of panic business.
The injury is the injury, they happen but having an able deputy is our own fault. Whether it be teta, edu, the board whatever it’s our own fault that our only option is Sterling who’s now injured. So teta is gonna have to figure it out.
And agree you don’t really buy squad enhancers in Jan, you either buy damaged or potential. I would always go potential. Plenty of players have moved in Jan and improved teams. Diaz, rogers, trossard, Gordon, madueke, gusto, cunha. There’s deals to be done
I’ve never noticed Rodgers at Villa before so I’ve no idea how reflective it is, but his performance against city was fabulous. IF that was his level, wonderful player. Since I’d not noticed him before I get he isn’t normally that brilliant tho?
Yh I don’t think I phrased it well reading back, final long shift before Christmas 🤦🏾♂️ I just meant that it’s really rare to go out and sign a proper ceiling raiser like a leao or kvar in Jan but you can definitely find a player with bags of potential who improves your squad and gives you options. I’m an FM geek so knew about rogers from his city days and have always been “he’s gonna bang!”. Tbf I say that about all the FM finds but he has really kicked on.
I just can’t get on board with the mindset of we’ll only do business for the perfect player. The transfer market is trial and error. Even with how good we’ve been you still get duds. You just have to fail fast and go again
I sympathize totally with Starboy who is phenomenal and it’s obviously not his fault at all
But I’ve no particular sympathy for us as a club
Arteta has been playing this fools game of overburdening Saka every season since forever. Everyone and their uncle knew this was going to happen the only question was when. We refuse to ever buy a proper backup and we refuse to use the existing options in the squad. This has always been inevitable sooner or later and Arteta deserves 100% of the blame
I also won’t stand by and see this get used as a convenient excuse for us to derail our season. It’s artetas fault this has happened and it’s his job now to guide us out of it. Whatever the solution looks like, we’ll see. But this idea that we should just have Saka play basically every game all season was always dumb as hell and here we are now.
If we do start dropping more points I don’t wanna bear this getting wheeled out as a well timed excuse because this is a self inflicted problem. It’s like when manager moan there are too many games in the season which puts pressure on the players’ fitness - whilst simultaneously playing the fools game of beating their best players for almost every match. Save a penny, spend a pound. We’d rather avoid the cost of having to utilize a weaker player here and there and just hope that Saka never gets hurt. But doing that has had him in the red zone many times this last few years and now the consequences are those backup players which Arteta doesn’t trust MUST play for months now. It’s a total false economy
Let’s also not use this convenient brain trust excuse for why Arteta hasn’t taken this seriously Pedro. We all know this is artetas call. You really think in the summer Arteta was desperate for a forward but his hands were tied? Then the club went against his wishes and bought an injury prone LB instead? Give over. That signing had Arteta all over it. Meanwhile Arteta CHOOSES to beast Saka. It’s 100% on him to own this situation and show his managerial nouse to manage it
The other thing with Saka, that Arteta seems to studiously ignore is that the PGMOL refuse to protect him in any way. Why couldn’t Arteta just rest his best player when we have been 3-0 up at half time? Baffled by it to be honest , Arteta has his qualities, but seemingly serious blind spots as well . I hope he learns from this season
Happy new year Pedro and thanks for the commitment and sacrifice
I’m a subscriber and love it so thank you 🙏🏿 it’s 100% money well spent.
Wanted to say though how sound as f*ck that is, to be offering people a free years subscription that can’t afford it for whatever reason the may have 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾.
We’re blessed on here boys, nobody delivers this kind of content that make you feel even further that you’re part of the Arsenal family and more so I love the point blank refusal to not give up hope here, with a realistic look on how unfortunate the team have been on a number of things.
Please all remember you are a fan…
We love this club and I will support it till my dying days regardless
The whole back up/adequate rotation for Saka argument is kinda fair enough to me purely because everything goes through his side of the pitch therefore he's going to be worked so much more than other "world class" players who play constantly and rarely get injured. People talk about Salah at Liverpool but they also have Diaz and Gakpo and Robertson on the left and there's variations to their attack whereas at Arsenal we don't have a consistent or consistency at LW and we don't have a balanced LB. You address that and then you won't have Saka overworked and doubled up so much and that would free him up more.
Well said
Arteta treats the right like its another synonym for Saka
He’s never even tried Martinelli on the right when he was struggling?
All i can say is what a lot of us have been saying for a few seasons, now - a lack of adequate Saka cover will come back to haunt us.
Granted, he's generally be ever-present in his short career, but he's played mad minutes, he's our focal point and we've neglected buying RW cover.
Even once he returns, I will be so surprised if he doesnt suffer a recurrence. Rarely do we see hamstring injuries get the full recover time they deserve - especially with rapido players. Van der Ven is a recent example that comes to mind.
I remember it took Pedro Neto half a season to fully recover, and funny enough that because he fully nursed it over the 2024 spring/summer.
I would say that the best possible outcome for January would be someone like Gular or Adingra on loan. Two good players not playing enough football and have been linked previously. Outside of that I can't think of too many options. Would love to see Bakayoko or Gittens but PSV are top the eredivisie and would Dortmund sell midseason despite struggling? Both would cost an arm and a leg. One things for sure havertz on the right...oof
Fate has decided to cure Arteta of his Saka addiction
Good thing Jesus came back to life just in time.
I sincerely Arteta doesn’t just turn negative because of this injury.
I would expect one of the highest paid managers in world football to come up with a better reaction.
Once Saka is fit, he'll be back to overplaying him. At least he would've gotten 2 months of rest. Diiabolical how much football he played.
Being injured isn't being rested.
He won't be playing, so yeah, he'll be rested. Are you expecting him to be playing street or beach football while recovering?
No I expect him to be getting treatment and repairing an injured muscle. None of which is resting. I suppose Timber was out for a year resting too
Rubbish, and what are you trying to prove? Who fucking cares whether that's resting or not. Lame ass.
My point is that it's stupid to suggest that this injury is him getting a rest for two months and he'll be back raring to go. He's injured which means treatment which means no training no match sharpness for two months
Pedro “Arsenal operate as a brains trust”….then writes enough stuff to clearly show “it’s a brains we shouldn’t trust”. This all comes back to our owners who don’t have the ambition for the club. Most sensible fans knew Saka was overplayed but Arteta thinks it’s good to make him do an Iron Man trial in between games. Our squad injury record is terrible. What is going on in training? So far Arteta has taken us to second twice and blew it with poor decisions. We will finish 3rd or 4th at best this season. Our fans need to stop blaming luck and other teams for NOT beating our competition. Out crap fans rinse and moan about Spurs not beating Liverpool. Like they did last season when they flopped again City. What sort of fans do we have who think it’s up to other teams to win the league for us? These fans make Arsenal a banter club.
Saka had to be over played unfortunately as tross, Marti, Havertz and sterling have been sub par this season unfortunately. Not sure what choice Arteta had.
A part of me feels that this Saka injury, whilst terrible short term, could have been a lot worse (torn ACL or Achilles). The guy just turned 23 and has played high level football for club and country every 3 days for 5 years. It was not sustainable. I personally would not rush him back as hamstrings are notoriously problematic (ask Reece James). The goal is to have him peak over the next 4 years (when he's 27).
People might not want to hear it (including the manager and player) but I would keep him out the entire season. He should not play football until September 2025. Let him rest, eat Jollof every day, and just sit in the sun. Time for Martinelli, Trossard, Sterling and Nwaneri to step up.
“It makes me sick. The second time City dip in the last 8 years and it’s Liverpool catching all the luck”
This made me chuckle.
Thanks Pedro, I think we all needed some comic relief having heard the Saka news.
Pool really fluked that title on 99 points in 2019, just one year after they stumbled on 97 points also purely by blind luck.
Come on, Pedro, this childish snark of ‘luck’ at Liverpool is weak sauce. Top of both leagues they are competing in is sheer luck? What are you smoking? Slot inherited a good squad and has stabilised and calmed them down from the hyperactive peaks and troughs of the Klopp years, which is smart management. Their squad has depth and breadth, giving them options for injuries and tactical switches. Ours is far more uneven and often forced into Arteta’s micromanaged structures with less flexibility . Two days ago he was on the top five managers, now he is what, for over dependency on the most creative powerhouse in our side?
Still, he could learn from the unexpected bonus of Jesus sparking to life because he wanted to rest Kai. Not just because of his uptick in form, but more for the fact Jesus creativity and pace has shown how deadly dull Havertz is, and how unimaginative he is. So maybe there are other combinations he hasn’t tried which will equally enliven us, now Saka is having the enforced rest he probably needed. That is what I would like to see, shaking the dice and refreshing our stale tactical approach. We badly needed it anyway, so let’s see what Arteta can come up with - the ball’s in his court now. I believe our players can be more creative and exciting when they aren’t so stifled by the control freakery of his approach. I want to be surprised by him - can he do it?
@Pedro Auba hit the ground running at Arsenal, scoring at least 10 goals in his first few months from memory. Arshavin had a more transformative impact having joined in a January window, however, he did play in a prime banter years Arsenal side. Elsewhere, Liverpool probably have the best record of bringing players in during winter transfer windows. Suarez, Van Dijk and Coutinho all joined in the previous seasons. Suarez was very effective in the backend of their season and VVD also slotted in very nicely. Despite my feelings towards him, Bruno Fernandes deserves a special shout. Having joined United from Sporting, he hit 8 goals and 7 assists for United in the league, 3 goals and 1 assist in the Europa and a cup goal. Probably the last good signing United made… so there could be hope. Depends how much money we have available - maybe Lookman is gettable (best form so far this season and playing at a high level. Kudus should be motivated to jump ship but the Gs and As aren’t there right now. Signing Isak at this stage with the form he’s in and consequently the fee that Newcastle would demand seems almost impossible.
Also complaining that we have the thinnest squad after selling and loaning out a bunch of attacking players is lame as hell
ESR, Vieira, Nelson, Eddie were all offloaded.
Arteta needs to stop making excuses for a situation he has guided us towards and put his money where his mouth is and guide us successfully past this hurdle until Saka returns
Zero sympathy from me. In fact less than that, he is in no small part accountable for it. He needs to stop moaning, get his head down and manage it. Starting immediately
Pedro pretty sure you wrote in the summer that the window was a success and those of us who thought letting three attackers leave without replacing them was poor business were wrong. And that Sterling was a stinky piece of panic business.
The injury is the injury, they happen but having an able deputy is our own fault. Whether it be teta, edu, the board whatever it’s our own fault that our only option is Sterling who’s now injured. So teta is gonna have to figure it out.
And agree you don’t really buy squad enhancers in Jan, you either buy damaged or potential. I would always go potential. Plenty of players have moved in Jan and improved teams. Diaz, rogers, trossard, Gordon, madueke, gusto, cunha. There’s deals to be done
I’ve never noticed Rodgers at Villa before so I’ve no idea how reflective it is, but his performance against city was fabulous. IF that was his level, wonderful player. Since I’d not noticed him before I get he isn’t normally that brilliant tho?
This will bring Pedro down mightily on my head..but Villa and Rodgers have a very good manager. Just saying.
Yh I don’t think I phrased it well reading back, final long shift before Christmas 🤦🏾♂️ I just meant that it’s really rare to go out and sign a proper ceiling raiser like a leao or kvar in Jan but you can definitely find a player with bags of potential who improves your squad and gives you options. I’m an FM geek so knew about rogers from his city days and have always been “he’s gonna bang!”. Tbf I say that about all the FM finds but he has really kicked on.
I just can’t get on board with the mindset of we’ll only do business for the perfect player. The transfer market is trial and error. Even with how good we’ve been you still get duds. You just have to fail fast and go again
I sympathize totally with Starboy who is phenomenal and it’s obviously not his fault at all
But I’ve no particular sympathy for us as a club
Arteta has been playing this fools game of overburdening Saka every season since forever. Everyone and their uncle knew this was going to happen the only question was when. We refuse to ever buy a proper backup and we refuse to use the existing options in the squad. This has always been inevitable sooner or later and Arteta deserves 100% of the blame
I also won’t stand by and see this get used as a convenient excuse for us to derail our season. It’s artetas fault this has happened and it’s his job now to guide us out of it. Whatever the solution looks like, we’ll see. But this idea that we should just have Saka play basically every game all season was always dumb as hell and here we are now.
If we do start dropping more points I don’t wanna bear this getting wheeled out as a well timed excuse because this is a self inflicted problem. It’s like when manager moan there are too many games in the season which puts pressure on the players’ fitness - whilst simultaneously playing the fools game of beating their best players for almost every match. Save a penny, spend a pound. We’d rather avoid the cost of having to utilize a weaker player here and there and just hope that Saka never gets hurt. But doing that has had him in the red zone many times this last few years and now the consequences are those backup players which Arteta doesn’t trust MUST play for months now. It’s a total false economy
Let’s also not use this convenient brain trust excuse for why Arteta hasn’t taken this seriously Pedro. We all know this is artetas call. You really think in the summer Arteta was desperate for a forward but his hands were tied? Then the club went against his wishes and bought an injury prone LB instead? Give over. That signing had Arteta all over it. Meanwhile Arteta CHOOSES to beast Saka. It’s 100% on him to own this situation and show his managerial nouse to manage it
The other thing with Saka, that Arteta seems to studiously ignore is that the PGMOL refuse to protect him in any way. Why couldn’t Arteta just rest his best player when we have been 3-0 up at half time? Baffled by it to be honest , Arteta has his qualities, but seemingly serious blind spots as well . I hope he learns from this season