Arteta's press conference on Saka's injury is pretty incoherent. Vague with the timeline and gibberish about the need to replace him. It was like a Wenger presser
You know what I find really offensive. When people compare Isak to Henry. Henryesque they say. I mean the guy isn’t worth Henry’s pubicles. TF is this comparison
I get what you're saying but I would counter with we've seen over the last few years Saka at the tail end of seasons get absolutely gassed and pick up little niggles here and there which you don't get with Salah. Basically he's shown he can handle the workload. Maybe Saka will be able to in his late 20's. Plus it doesn't help that he's doubled up on cause he's so important and everything comes down our right whereas at Liverpool their left is as dangerous as their right.
Teamnewsandtix on Saka’s injury: “Now people are reporting it will be eight weeks — I’m told that is a bare minimum & the likelihood is we won’t see him until March.”
I am furious. This season hasn't been the most lucky for us. Multiple important players have missed a lot of football. And now Saka is going to miss some too. It is just annoying.
Added to the player who was going to back him up in Sterling is also out for a few weeks. When it rains it pours I guess. Between Havertz, Trossard, Martinelli, Jesus and Nwaneri, they are going to have to play a lot of minutes.
We need an attacker badly. We aren't getting the elite. So I would love Eze if we can convince palace to sell.
It’s not looking good. He’s going to be out for many weeks.
on how many weeks he’ll be out for:
Many. I cannot be too specific because I don’t know, but it will be many weeks.
on how big a blow it is for us:
Yes it’s a huge one. Obviously he’s a big player for us. You just have to see the impact that he has on the team, but it’s going to be a really good exercise for all of us to think about ways to overcome another challenge, because we’ve already had a lot in the season.
on Raheem Sterling:
He’s going to be out for weeks. He needs some further testing tomorrow to understand the extent of the injury. It’s his knee and we have to wait another 24 hours, but unfortunately he’s going to be out for a while.
on if we will sign a player in that position:
I don’t know, my intention right now is within the team right now to get the best out of what we have. What is outside is not in our control.
on the option of Martinelli on the right:
Yeah, well, that's the first one that we decided to go through, especially because he's played there before. He played the last game there against Everton in the last match of the season. He did really well. I think he did really well again the other day. He scored a goal, he created an assist. And it's a good option to have. We're going to have the options to play both footed as well. If we need to, another kind of profile in relation to the opposition. So, we are on it.
on the candidates to replace Saka:
Gabby has played there, Ethan has played there, Leo can play there in relation to how that unit moves. Kai can play there, asking him different things. So, We'll see, try to speak to them as well and understand how they feel about it.
You can’t say pep is responsible for the high number they make in sales of youth team players
Since they’ve curbed their spending and had to sell off vital first teamers like Alvarez, they are tanking
They’ve been collared
Chelsea spent ££1bn in 2 years odd
Then it will catch up with then and they will have to curtail for a while but they’ll already have an elite spine in space so they can afford to be smart in 2-3 years
Pool were able to spend big partly because Klopp didn’t come in dick swinging everyone has to go I’m rebuilding the clubs culture style.
Sure , he fleeced Barca on the Coutinho deal, but he sold quietly a whole bunch of misfits for decent funds( Benteke, Sakho amongst others) to fund his rebuild.
Meanwhile Arteta tanked everyone’s value by proclaiming the squad was not fit the purpose.
Do you think for one second Klopp would get nothing out of Pepe?
Go back as long as you like if it helps your spin. Arteta isnt going anywhere soon. The Kroenke's love him but in your world, who do you replace him with and then we have to go through another rebuild with another playing style and the new manager's players. etc etc.
There’s a rumor that City are planning a 66£ million bid for Kudus in January. If they get him I’d be so annoyed. Can’t believe we chose that fairy Viera over him. Just so poor.
I think now is clear we need to go for an fa cup. At a push the chumps league. The prem is done and dusted. Liverpool have an easy run until end of January. They are steam rolling teams and no injuries to key players. Whereas we are 3rd not 2nd and consistently get injuries to key players. Ode, Gabriel (CB) and now Saka. We dropped points when the first two got injured. Simple math. O I missed Rice too go figure. Realism is needed and I'm sure Arteta will know this
It’s almost dead but not quite yet. Liverpool have only won one of their last 3 league games. So the claim they’re steamrolling teams is false at the moment.
They steamrolled a god awful spurs team playing Angieball with 3 first choice defenders out - which as annoying as that is, was probably to be expected
But I too am concerned that there are no obviously tough games on the horizon for them. We need them to have a bad game and stutter so that they don’t regain the momentum they had lost a little recently with those draws
likely 2x top4 teams, one top6/8 team and probably a team playing against relegation. can see them easily drop 5-8 points
your assessment is true however - they probably won‘t drop many points until end of january and we need to keep goi g. still keep in mind - they play 7 out of 9 games against the top 10 away from home
Ayden Heaven has refused to sign a new contract - his current one expires in 2025 and several English and continental European teams are interested in taking him off our hands, Manchester United being one of them [multiple news sources].
I’ve no idea how good he is but it breaks my heart to see him leave knowing how many amazing headlines a guy with that name could generate in the same team as Jesus hahaha
City end the weekend mathematically alone in 7th position and only 4 points above 12th on the same number of games going into Christmas Day. Wild. If Liverpool win their game in hand they’re 15 points above city
Good to see Chelsea choke.
Man utd getting whooped at home by Bournemouth was lovely
But we really needed spurs to do us a favour. Pools next 2 league games are easy. We really need spurs to continue pools winless streak and leave them doubting themselves. Instead big Angie and the boys once again showed they’re just AWFUL at the worst possible time. Thanks for nothing spuds.
This would be the table if all games had ended as the xG and xGA of each individual game showed.
Crazy how high Chavs and Forest are because of inconsistencies between xG and the points they've won. Liverpool are 3rd in the league after the two I just mentioned in the relation of xPTS and actual points won. Luck is a massive factor in every championship.
basically true but your description is wrong. xPoints don‘t simply adds 0, 1 or 3 points depending whether a team has more xG than the other. it is another probability showing how much points on average a team achieves with certain xG and xGA values on a game basis. in the end - if a team has 5 xG and the other has 0,1xG you will receive something like 2,95 points out of three while if your xG is similar to your opponent‘s you will receive 1 or something the like
very interesting statistic imho as it not only shows you you should score a goal per 1xG at the minimum but far more
we are the only top 5 team that should have more points than we have
Concur with Dissenter. Pedro, your writing and your clear dedication to Arsenal is awesome, thank you. Arteta has done an amazing job driving and changing culture and getting us to a place where we are a serious team, we're not worried about getting smashed by multiple teams, we are competitive, we play good football, we have terrific players who actually care about Arsenal, the fans, putting a shift in, and creating a completely different atmosphere in the ground etc. I'm all in on that - much respect. And if that is where we are and what we are all supposed to buy into, ok! But be honest about that. The excuses and the repeated level-setting are grating - (When Pep leaves, it will be our time! When Klopp leaves it will be our time! The post-Klopp team is too old; Salah is working only for his next contract etc.). We are five years in, with a LOT of funds spent. We have three trophies; aside from the FA Cup, the other two are not "major". How do we explain Slot's performance? Maresca? Do you really think we are going to overtake Liverpool? We can bleat all we want about injuries and cards this season; perhaps Arteta should consider calming down a bit on the sideline; perhaps Arteta should look at his training methods and his repeated statements about durability. How about we look at this and prior seasons and make the same evaluation across us and our rivals as well as look at the matches this season where we have absolutely failed to perform. I am betting that if Saka is out for more than a couple of matches, the next narrative will be "poor Arsenal, we can't be expected to win without Saka", with no reference to Rodri as just one example. Apologies - but we can and should do better.
don‘t want to go too deep into it but first - slot inherited a squad that was top of the table in april, they weren‘t great but very good. still think they will drop enough points for us to get past them. I just wrote a friend of mine I would be very confident going into the last 4 games of the season with 4/5 points down (direct showdown at anfield plus their away game to chelsea and brighton)
second: maresca inherited a squad full of overpaid players who are very good individuals but not a team yet. if you look at the numbers chelsea overperforms their xPoints by 7! they are lucky, we‘ll see where they are at the end of the season but they won‘t be anywhere near the title imo
‘We have the most fertile players in the league these days…’ 😂😂😂
Arteta's press conference on Saka's injury is pretty incoherent. Vague with the timeline and gibberish about the need to replace him. It was like a Wenger presser
You know what I find really offensive. When people compare Isak to Henry. Henryesque they say. I mean the guy isn’t worth Henry’s pubicles. TF is this comparison
There's a lot of 'I told you so" going around, regarding Saka's pretty bad hammy tear
Everyone, especially Pedro saw this one coming
Everyone bar the manager
For many windows we failed to buy a rotational option or Saka, always trusting that he will stay healthy.
Who's the guy they rotate Salah with? Asking for a friend.
I get what you're saying but I would counter with we've seen over the last few years Saka at the tail end of seasons get absolutely gassed and pick up little niggles here and there which you don't get with Salah. Basically he's shown he can handle the workload. Maybe Saka will be able to in his late 20's. Plus it doesn't help that he's doubled up on cause he's so important and everything comes down our right whereas at Liverpool their left is as dangerous as their right.
Teamnewsandtix on Saka’s injury: “Now people are reporting it will be eight weeks — I’m told that is a bare minimum & the likelihood is we won’t see him until March.”
_______________________________________________________
2 months absolute minimum, more than 3 months expected? What the actual fuck???
That was supposed to happen to one of Pool's veteran players (Salah or VVD)... Not to our best player...
I am furious. This season hasn't been the most lucky for us. Multiple important players have missed a lot of football. And now Saka is going to miss some too. It is just annoying.
Added to the player who was going to back him up in Sterling is also out for a few weeks. When it rains it pours I guess. Between Havertz, Trossard, Martinelli, Jesus and Nwaneri, they are going to have to play a lot of minutes.
We need an attacker badly. We aren't getting the elite. So I would love Eze if we can convince palace to sell.
Bloody hell losing Saka is bad news Gabby looked good there when he replaced him but without our Starboy I can't see us winning the title
on Bukayo Saka:
It’s not looking good. He’s going to be out for many weeks.
on how many weeks he’ll be out for:
Many. I cannot be too specific because I don’t know, but it will be many weeks.
on how big a blow it is for us:
Yes it’s a huge one. Obviously he’s a big player for us. You just have to see the impact that he has on the team, but it’s going to be a really good exercise for all of us to think about ways to overcome another challenge, because we’ve already had a lot in the season.
on Raheem Sterling:
He’s going to be out for weeks. He needs some further testing tomorrow to understand the extent of the injury. It’s his knee and we have to wait another 24 hours, but unfortunately he’s going to be out for a while.
on if we will sign a player in that position:
I don’t know, my intention right now is within the team right now to get the best out of what we have. What is outside is not in our control.
on the option of Martinelli on the right:
Yeah, well, that's the first one that we decided to go through, especially because he's played there before. He played the last game there against Everton in the last match of the season. He did really well. I think he did really well again the other day. He scored a goal, he created an assist. And it's a good option to have. We're going to have the options to play both footed as well. If we need to, another kind of profile in relation to the opposition. So, we are on it.
on the candidates to replace Saka:
Gabby has played there, Ethan has played there, Leo can play there in relation to how that unit moves. Kai can play there, asking him different things. So, We'll see, try to speak to them as well and understand how they feel about it.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/every-word-mikels-pre-ipswich-press-conference
____________________________________________________________
What a bummer...
I hate how predictable this one was.. everyone saw that coming a mile away..
It seems like we just can't catch a break. What a horror season...
Only Rodri has clocked more minutes than Saka over the last few years for club and country, and he blew his ACL running in a straight line.
I recall a few of us here predicted this season would settle along the injury table timelines, just like the one before.
Losing Saka is a big deal, sadly.
As far as I am concerned Arsenal should keep their powder dry in the January transfer window
apart from perhaps recruiting a decent a second string goalkeeper.
The club has as yet not replaced Edu and that should be the first priority before we start spending more money in the transfer windows.
You cannot keep on buying new players on a whim. There are very few players currently
available who are worth spending money on and particularly at the fees likely to be demanded.
The only player who might leave this January is Tierney and we have got plenty of cover for
left back position.
Top quality youngsters maybe, 17-19
I agree that Arsenal should focus on recruitment of young players both in academy
and also in first team squad, but this is a matter to be postponed until Edu's replacement is found.
There is some concern about the number of promising academy players who are
leaving the club starting with Omari Hutchinson, Crozier-Duberry and Obi Martin.
Clearly Arsenal are not prepared to offer these players terms and contracts which
other clubs like Chelsea and Man Utd are prepared to do.
Perhaps Arsenal are being more selective and prudent than other clubs. Heaven
seems to be leaving for similar reasons to other three and there needs to be an
explanation.
1) Chelsea:£-795m
2) Man U: £- 547m
3) Arsenal: £ -469m
4) Tottenham: £-458m
5) Newcastle: £-370m
6) West Ham: £- 276m
7) Liverpool: £-253m
11) Man City £-139m
The above five year net spend table.
Below top five wages p/w:
1) City: £3,882,000
2) United: £ 3,568,846
3) Arsenal: £3,310,500
4) Chelsea: £3,252,500
5) Liverpool: £2,477,000
Why?
Two reasons.
First , the City outspending all others narrative is a fiction.
Has been for years, at least on transfers.
Second, Pool are over performing both, their transfer spend and wages, also have been for years.
Arteta is neither great or poor based on both tables.
Why We are in the PL race. In semi of the cup, almost qualified for the next round of CL
Also
Net spend isn’t spend
You can’t say pep is responsible for the high number they make in sales of youth team players
Since they’ve curbed their spending and had to sell off vital first teamers like Alvarez, they are tanking
They’ve been collared
Chelsea spent ££1bn in 2 years odd
Then it will catch up with then and they will have to curtail for a while but they’ll already have an elite spine in space so they can afford to be smart in 2-3 years
Arsenal had catching up to do
Pool were spending huge sums 5-6 years ago (£60m on Keita, £80m vvd, £70m Allison) when we could only afford David Luiz Willian and Dani C on loan
City spent £200m on full backs
£100m on a reserve left winger grealish and the money they spent on haalnad clearly isn’t reflected in the net spend as it was under the table
Hes a £200m striker in reality and there were obviously back handlers there
Pool were able to spend big partly because Klopp didn’t come in dick swinging everyone has to go I’m rebuilding the clubs culture style.
Sure , he fleeced Barca on the Coutinho deal, but he sold quietly a whole bunch of misfits for decent funds( Benteke, Sakho amongst others) to fund his rebuild.
Meanwhile Arteta tanked everyone’s value by proclaiming the squad was not fit the purpose.
Do you think for one second Klopp would get nothing out of Pepe?
If you do then I don’t know what to tell you.
What happens when you go back 10 years or doesn't that suit the narrative?
Why stop at 10 then?
Let’s go back 15 or 20 and talk about how Wenger over performed both.
Five years is perfectly long enough to rebuild a side when funds are made available to a manager afforded time.
Klopp said: “if I don’t win the PL in the next four years, I would have failed”, when asked his goals upon signing up with Pool.
A couple of things:
Firstly, I dont spin.
Secondly, Where did you get an idea I want Arteta gone?
Certainly not from any of my posts, if you read them correctly, that is.
As a matter of fact I repeatedly said he’s not going anywhere and I was fine with it.
So take a deep breath and save your energy for that dude something something42, he’ll be back in a week’s time, he’s your level.
Go back as long as you like if it helps your spin. Arteta isnt going anywhere soon. The Kroenke's love him but in your world, who do you replace him with and then we have to go through another rebuild with another playing style and the new manager's players. etc etc.
You stop/start when City was taken over by the Abu Dhabi Group.
There’s a rumor that City are planning a 66£ million bid for Kudus in January. If they get him I’d be so annoyed. Can’t believe we chose that fairy Viera over him. Just so poor.
Wait till Habesha sees this.
At least Kudus would keep its value ... Viera hardly worth 15£m now. Should learn not to punt more than 20m on' kids'
You prolly mean 15 million pesos or rupees🤣
I don't rate Kudus above Doku
Wow!
I think now is clear we need to go for an fa cup. At a push the chumps league. The prem is done and dusted. Liverpool have an easy run until end of January. They are steam rolling teams and no injuries to key players. Whereas we are 3rd not 2nd and consistently get injuries to key players. Ode, Gabriel (CB) and now Saka. We dropped points when the first two got injured. Simple math. O I missed Rice too go figure. Realism is needed and I'm sure Arteta will know this
It’s almost dead but not quite yet. Liverpool have only won one of their last 3 league games. So the claim they’re steamrolling teams is false at the moment.
They steamrolled a god awful spurs team playing Angieball with 3 first choice defenders out - which as annoying as that is, was probably to be expected
But I too am concerned that there are no obviously tough games on the horizon for them. We need them to have a bad game and stutter so that they don’t regain the momentum they had lost a little recently with those draws
pool‘s final 4 games
chelsea away
arsenal home
brighton away
palace home
likely 2x top4 teams, one top6/8 team and probably a team playing against relegation. can see them easily drop 5-8 points
your assessment is true however - they probably won‘t drop many points until end of january and we need to keep goi g. still keep in mind - they play 7 out of 9 games against the top 10 away from home
Ayden Heaven has refused to sign a new contract - his current one expires in 2025 and several English and continental European teams are interested in taking him off our hands, Manchester United being one of them [multiple news sources].
Good oir not, need to stop the trend these kids are leaving fast
I’ve no idea how good he is but it breaks my heart to see him leave knowing how many amazing headlines a guy with that name could generate in the same team as Jesus hahaha
He can leave. Wasn’t impressed at all in the summer with him. He won’t get time there either so good luck to him
City end the weekend mathematically alone in 7th position and only 4 points above 12th on the same number of games going into Christmas Day. Wild. If Liverpool win their game in hand they’re 15 points above city
Good to see Chelsea choke.
Man utd getting whooped at home by Bournemouth was lovely
But we really needed spurs to do us a favour. Pools next 2 league games are easy. We really need spurs to continue pools winless streak and leave them doubting themselves. Instead big Angie and the boys once again showed they’re just AWFUL at the worst possible time. Thanks for nothing spuds.
https://understat.com/league/EPL
Team xPTS PTS
1. Liverpool 36.22 (-2.78) 39
2. Arsenal 33.77 (+0.77) 33
3. Bournemouth 31.05(+3.05) 28
4. Chelsea 28.92 (-6.08) 35
5. Aston Villa 28.71 (+0.71) 28
6. Fulham 28.15 (+3.15) 25
7. Manchester United 26.42 (+4.42) 22
8. Tottenham 26.34 (+3.34) 23
9. Manchester City 26.21 (-0.79) 27
10. Nottingham Forest 25.34 (-5.66) 31
This would be the table if all games had ended as the xG and xGA of each individual game showed.
Crazy how high Chavs and Forest are because of inconsistencies between xG and the points they've won. Liverpool are 3rd in the league after the two I just mentioned in the relation of xPTS and actual points won. Luck is a massive factor in every championship.
Rap, we'd be higher without the 3 reds
Absolutely.
Could woulda shoulda didn’t
I suspect you contextualise your day to day problems a bit differently when it comes to relevant mitigating circumstances.
basically true but your description is wrong. xPoints don‘t simply adds 0, 1 or 3 points depending whether a team has more xG than the other. it is another probability showing how much points on average a team achieves with certain xG and xGA values on a game basis. in the end - if a team has 5 xG and the other has 0,1xG you will receive something like 2,95 points out of three while if your xG is similar to your opponent‘s you will receive 1 or something the like
very interesting statistic imho as it not only shows you you should score a goal per 1xG at the minimum but far more
we are the only top 5 team that should have more points than we have
Concur with Dissenter. Pedro, your writing and your clear dedication to Arsenal is awesome, thank you. Arteta has done an amazing job driving and changing culture and getting us to a place where we are a serious team, we're not worried about getting smashed by multiple teams, we are competitive, we play good football, we have terrific players who actually care about Arsenal, the fans, putting a shift in, and creating a completely different atmosphere in the ground etc. I'm all in on that - much respect. And if that is where we are and what we are all supposed to buy into, ok! But be honest about that. The excuses and the repeated level-setting are grating - (When Pep leaves, it will be our time! When Klopp leaves it will be our time! The post-Klopp team is too old; Salah is working only for his next contract etc.). We are five years in, with a LOT of funds spent. We have three trophies; aside from the FA Cup, the other two are not "major". How do we explain Slot's performance? Maresca? Do you really think we are going to overtake Liverpool? We can bleat all we want about injuries and cards this season; perhaps Arteta should consider calming down a bit on the sideline; perhaps Arteta should look at his training methods and his repeated statements about durability. How about we look at this and prior seasons and make the same evaluation across us and our rivals as well as look at the matches this season where we have absolutely failed to perform. I am betting that if Saka is out for more than a couple of matches, the next narrative will be "poor Arsenal, we can't be expected to win without Saka", with no reference to Rodri as just one example. Apologies - but we can and should do better.
don‘t want to go too deep into it but first - slot inherited a squad that was top of the table in april, they weren‘t great but very good. still think they will drop enough points for us to get past them. I just wrote a friend of mine I would be very confident going into the last 4 games of the season with 4/5 points down (direct showdown at anfield plus their away game to chelsea and brighton)
second: maresca inherited a squad full of overpaid players who are very good individuals but not a team yet. if you look at the numbers chelsea overperforms their xPoints by 7! they are lucky, we‘ll see where they are at the end of the season but they won‘t be anywhere near the title imo