Ramsdale blows hot and cold in pulling off the impossible saves and then making needless gaffs, as I think he loses part of his focus under pressure when he panics. A good keeper, but needs to be pushed by his #2.
I’m still banging the Mitoma drum who if added to Trossard, Jesus, Martinelli, Saka, Reiss, Balogun & Eddie makes up a very interchangeable front line including a couple of false 9s. Balogun netted again this weekend.
My question is why buy another front 3 player who may not fit? We need to hit the ground running next season so Mitoma fits the PL ready and tested fit, who is scoring for fun and making assists. Midfield is where we need money spent although Mitoma, Vieira and Trossard can play #8 equally well. Spend well on a #6, as Kiwior isn’t ready to cover for Partey (Rice?) just now. Lokonga is improving at Palace and had an error free game against City’s MF at the weekend who could only manage a win by a lucky switch off moment by Elisse.
Our back 4 including White are hard to get past where I still believe we need to keep KT as an ‘old style’ hard man defender of the 80s & 90s. I’m warming to White the more he seems to be enjoying his football. He really does leave it all on the field, and has good support from Tomi.
My concern with bringing in a big name up front is Arteta ‘pet’ based. Look at Xhaka: Arteta’s pet Rottweiler lumbering around the pitch making his usual 45/48 passes mostly backwards and sideways and pass to their keeper when through on goal for a 2nd time from the penalty spot (last game?) and 6-yard box yesterday. That was it for 95 minutes for Xhaka. No tackles or any interceptions et al. Jorginho would be the better play after ESR/Vieira as 8 or as I mentioned above players that will offer far more than Xhaka’s 45 passes.
When Ode reaches his late 20s he’s going to be elite. I said it when I first saw him play as a 16yo and he isn’t disappointing. The focus he plays with is razor sharp where Jesus and Trossard have upped his game by theirs and movement being far more intelligent. That’s what we play: intelligent football bordering on elite that’s required to win the PL and CL.
Yesterday was a turning point following on from our last minute win last weekend. We dispatched a decent Fulham side comfortably, so much so, we settled in 2nd gear for the 2nd half while containing the early onslaught expected from a shell shocked team. At least Arteta made the right subs barring Xhaka of course. The subs should have been at half time as the game was won.
I’m happier having Palace at home next Sunday. Brighton and Palace are 2 teams Junior and I watch a lot. Obviously, Palace for Paddy and Brighton for De Zerbi’s ability to have taken BHA further in development after Potter left. Paddy has Palace well drilled where they kept City misfiring blasting over the bar or wide. Their aerial defending prowess kept Haaland’s head free of the ball all game in the box. It won’t be an easy game but we have enough at home to get the 3 points.
Paddy and De Zerbi could easily take over from Arteta and do better in my view. Certainly, as people and man management and equal for tactics if not better.
Anyway, these and above are my thoughts after this weekend. We can take points from L’pool and City as long as Xhaka doesn’t play in either. To do this we need to continue our winning momentum, as both will want our scalp and where the tough will get going, as we are no longer shrinking violets playing tiki taka football, we’ll take the game to both Pool and City who will worried about playing us if we keep winning. We play direct, often breath taking football from a team full of leaders high on confidence and belief in winning the title; that much was evident Sunday at Fulham.
Do we really need 5 more games from the EL cup? My thinking is Arteta rested players for the Sporting home game and not for Palace, as he wants to win both, as do we, but not at the expense of losing the title.
We did it once in 2016, let’s not make the same mistake again.
Couldn’t agree more with the Ben White assessment. I was one of those, who didn’t like that move and wished we spent that money in midfield rather. I was wrong, White is proving to immense and even though Tomi is a brilliant player, we miss White when he is not on the pitch.
His absence is felt more than his presence, a perfect way to describe a defender.
I will eat the humble pie on Odegaard too. ESR was my favorite, but he is injury prone and Ode is proving how brilliant he is.
Another good piece Tony – cheers.
It caps off another impressive weekend. And Ambarish, I salute you for allowing pluralism to flourish on here. It’s very welcome, and a far cry from what the egotistical establishment mouthpiece says with his monopolised cant on Le Grove (which increasingly sounds like he’s talking to himself…).
I’m largely with you on Xhaka. But his through ball for Martinelli’s VAR’ed goal was, gulp, world class. And the dummy and run for his major fluff in front of Bernie was something else.
Your and Herb’s forestastes of summer transfer activity make for good reading. We’re almost getting to the stage where we’re looking at individual upgrades (which is where I’d say City and Pool have been for the past 5 years). By which I mean, identify an individual DM to replace Elneny, rather than worrying that we need 2 new faces in MF or a complete backline. To my mind, this success has brought a palpable and positive shift.
To that extent, and given there’s no immediately upcoming window, I’m personally not going to give transfers too much thought right now. If the next few months go as we all hope, there’s almost a valid case to say we only need minimal but real upgrades. NO MORE OZIL TYPES THOUGH PLEASE. Tony – Mitoma looks to be a terrific player, I agree.
I think I might indulge myself thus afternoon…. By re-watching that first half!
Thanks, KP. I think buying Mitoma does more than bring a high ceiling player to the squad suited to our play. It’s also cultural company for Tomi. Japan is very Xenophobic for the older generations, but also tough to adjust to. Having a compatriot I feel would add to the cohesiveness of the squad. Have you worked there, KP? So far we’ve spent time in Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe and Tokyo. Next trip we’ll head north by train.
Then there is the commercial side where an Asian summer tour of say, Bangkok, Singapore, then Seoul, and finish in Japan. 10 to 12 days of heat training then from japan fly to America head to LA and a few matches and some high altitude training in Denver. Then New York and fly home.
That would bring in some coin, for sure. Especially with an Amazon doc MK II.
I’m in no way an expert Tony, but I’ve not seen many Japanese players and thought too highly of them. Prior to Tommy, we had Inamoto and Asano, neither of whom did much. The odd times I’ve seen their national team, they’ve looked a bit underpowered (although they did well in this most recent WC. Tommy is a valid member of our squad and merits a place. Mitoma looks to be of an even higher level. But knowing Brighton, they’ll only sell him and Caicedo for silly amounts.
Just travelled through Tokyo but I’d like to see more. I think what’s so intriguing is their slightly different take on capitalism and culture compared to the west. I also have a huge amount of respect for the people.
To be honest Xhaka definitely has his flaws but he also at times pulls of something mind bending like this pass.
https://twitter.com/karthikadhaigal/status/1635160440882991104
If we advance in the EL and win the next 2 games than we will go to Anfield on 4/9 with a huge confidence boost and possibly get a result there. Here is to wishing and hoping.
Here’s the thing, I have come around on White in certain aspects, as I like his pace, size and ability to provide the occasional yet much-needed overlapping runs, but if someone were to say to me, at any point since the year prior to his purchase, here’s 50+M to buy a RB, he wouldn’t be anywhere near my top 10 wishlist(and still wouldn’t be)…I still don’t believe that MA’s was planning all along to have him move out to the flanks, in the year following his arrival, because it was a foregone conclusion that Saliba was his first choice RCB…now the saving grace in this particular situation was that White did have experience playing in wider spaces in a back 3, so it wasn’t a square peg, round hole gig, but with Tomi under contract, for almost a third the price, and playing well, minus the injury concerns, I would have used those monies to address much more pressing needs…at that time I was pounding the table for Dumfries, after his stellar Euro performance, who ultimately went to Inter for 15M
in regards to Ode, I’ve come to accept the fact that I was wrong in my belief that he would struggle mightily when it came to putting his stamp on things due to the lack of space and time in the PL…now he still hasn’t produced a truly memorable performance against an in-form top 4 opponent, but there’s no doubt he has proven his worth, especially from a bang for your buck perspective
to be fair, it was difficult to compare ESR and Ode, at that time, as we were playing in a rather disjointed 4-2-3-1, which saw Ode playing primarily on the right, behind Saka, with Laca coming deep in the middle, with his back to goal, and Xhaka playing deeper so that Tierney could bomb up the left side…whereas I wanted ESR to assume a more central position in the midfield and provide some much-needed directness to our wide-side dependent tactical approach…regardless, Ode provides us with things that ESR can’t, especially with his continued injury concerns, albeit I would much rather see ESR or Trossard on the pitch instead of Xhaka, now that the latter is primarily being deployed in more advanced positions
ultimately, I just hope that our more band-aid like maneuvers won’t negatively impact our ability or desire to pursue the kinds of players who can move the needle both in the short and long-term…let’s face it, if we were seriously pursuing blue chip prospects like Mudryk and Caicedo, it suggests that our TW aspirations were considerably higher than what we settled on, which isn’t in and of itself a slag against our ultimate purchases, but a statement of the facts…so even though Trossard and Jorginho might be enough to get this over the line, this certainly wasn’t a given, in fact, it was simply a calculated risk that came good
now some might say all transactions are a calculated risk, which I would agree with, but what we’re talking about here is more nuanced, as it deals directly with “degrees” of risk…their Plan A and/or B failed, so they pursued a course of action which even they themselves believed was less likely to succeed over the long haul, but what MIGHT hoepfully provide some more immediate returns…personally, I’m looking for us to finally return to our pre-Emirates stature when we were a cake and eat it too franchise…when this happens I’ll know for sure that the organizational cultural reinvention is heading in the right direction
TRVL
Arteta bought White because he’d already written off Saliba before he (finally) managed to send him on loan. The simple truth is to buy a player of White’s ability / skillset from the Continent would cost less than half the £50 million we paid for him.
White’s not a bad player but if we made him available tomorrow how many bids over £25 million would we get?
Agreed Marc…just another short-sighted decision, much like the whole retool instead of rebuild gig…there’s no way White would covet a +50M bid, unless the market changed dramatically, as he doesn’t provide enough offensive output to prompt any such interest…now if he continues to grow as a player and becomes a viable everyday RB for the next 5, 6 or 7 years, questions surrounding his initial fee/resale value will become largely moot
Marc & TRVL
Agreed, also a poor decision at the time compared to our real needs in MF. Tested PL players always are at a premium price, so I’d say he’d start at £35m. If more than one club were interested then who knows where the bidding stops.
I think the question is now is White worth £50m+ to us with our current squad where I’d say yes, he is. I was as against White’s purchase as you both, and as pretty much all on LIR were. There’s still a fragility in White’s eyes at times, but I’d say he’s improved, especially his forward play. Then, there’s the utility player in him Arteta loves: multi positional.
At the time it was as poor decision, as it was buying Willian, Giving Auba a new deal, giving Auba away to barca and paying his wages, then Auba gets sold to The Chavs for £6m?. The list is very long of Arteta’s rookiness and flagrant disregard for the clubs players’ financial assets.
For all our dislike of Arteta the man and manager, he has been given Manager of the Year because none of the other top managers have shown up this season, as results have proven and the small point of we’ve been top for months merits Arteta the award.
Other more worthy recipients were as Saka for top youth and Ode rightly got player of the year. So, basically we cleaned up at the awards, which is a nice feeling to have a full on banter bragging rights to go belters with. Junior is taking no prisoners with his school mates and will use the awards as cluster bombs. There are only 2 Gooners at Junior’s school including him; however, when we win the league, there will be many flip floppers jumping on The Arsenal gravy train.
Of course this means nothing if we end up trophy less at the end of the season.
I have long posted at the preposterous way our club has been run since Dein was unceremoniously dumped out of the club and KSE were the major share holders. Their attitude towards the fans was utterly disingenuous and downright insulting at the AGMs. Watching Amazon our managerial/suits optics were decidedly poor and nearly always putting out fires with reactive decisions, which often fanned the flames. Proactivity is still a very little used skill with both the running of our club and TW plans. The last window we lost who we wanted because they chose to play for other managers/clubs, and fell into Trossard and Jorginho who Arteta prefers Xhaka – go figure.
On the subject of Xhaka I have never implied Xhaka was complete shite for 9 years (?), I’ve shouted it from the rooftops. However, I have always maintained a caveat that Xhaka is and has always been perfect for the French or Italian leagues because with time on the ball he can hit game winning passes, as was witnessed against Fulham, but well mentioned by KP that he was too slow delaying the pass, Trossard or Ode and Sake would have delivered perfectly.
In sum, Xhaka panics when pressed, which is where his brain farts come from. Look at his stats and tell me he’s not a liability having to be covered for by Partey and Zinchenko and for what? 45 passes and no tackles or interceptions in a game we were dominating. So what did Xhaka do in that game other than sweating buckets and jogging around the pitch maintaining his fitness. He’s never injured because he never tackles or rarely does. Wenger told him not to tackle. WTF?
What would have Jorginho, Zinchenko (KT at LB) or ESR added to the game that Xhaka demonstrably didn’t? I believe a few more goals.
Time for Xhaka to use the EL Cup for game time and for Arteta to bench the liability for the PL.
While he’s on the beck he can look after all his team mates keys. 🙂 I always look for the positives. 🙂
Thanks Tony, Fulham dispatched in the way they should be, and it has to be said, we are playing some good football. Trossard has proved to be a very astute acquisition.
I understand your admiration for Mitoma, his goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup was absolute quality. Brighton must have some scouting network to unearth so many of these talents, a bit like Southampton a few years ago, before Liverpool took all their best players.
Perhaps we should do a Liverpool on them and give them £100m or thereabouts for Caicedo, MacAllister and Mitoma.
I would add Henderson (Gk), and I’m with TRVL, I would like the option of a traditional right-back, a Lee Dixon or Bacary Sagna type, I’m really not a fan of hybrid jack-of-all-trades defenders. Ben White has performed well, not £50m well, but he would be my back up.
And a quality Centre Half in case we lose either Saliba or Gabriel to injury/suspension.
So, GK, right back, centre half and the three lads from Brighton.
Those six and we’re definitely ready to conquer the CL.
(The irony is, I know as much as you guys, none of this will happen).