Brighton is a tough team to play against. They play high intensity, positive game and have Europe in mind. Having played 3 less games than Tottenham, who sits at the 6th position, Brighton could overtake them with a win. They are in a happy place but they know things can turn bad towards the end of the season, and won’t really be wishing to leave it to that. They will fight, and they will make things tough for us.
Today’s game comes with a relief for Arteta, both Solly March and Webster are ruled out of game and we are back in fine form. Saliba and Zinchenko are ruled out for the season, but Kiwior didn’t disappoint and Tierney is as good a player at LB. He might come up short in his midfield abilities, but I’m of the belief that a defender’s first priority is to defend well. Anything else is extra.
Having said that, I would really like him to excel in the three games left. Rumours about him leaving (or sold) is not a good news for me, I don’t know if we need to splash another 60m for a LB when we already have a lad covering it and doing well whenever given a chance. It would be like creating a problem and then fixing it.
For the rest of this season, we don’t have anything to win or lose now. I’m a generally optimistic person but everyone and their dog knows City are not going to drop points, and are not going to give away their 1 point lead with a game in hand. We feel the Liverpool’s frustration, in a short amount of time they have overtaken the title race. No doubt we have thrown it away ourselves by sharing points against the likes of West Ham and Liverpool after going 2-0 up, and against Southampton at home, but Pep is showing to us how hard it can be for any other team. Not only does he prepares his team tactically, he engrains in them a tough, winning mentality which allows them to perform at the top when needed the most.
It was nice till it lasted. It leaves us to the last three games, and I’m looking forward to finishing our season with 3 wins, and 90 points. It will keep the confidence high, make the incomings in the summer easier and gives us the confidence to pick ourselves up and retry again next season.
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Back to the game, I’m expecting a a back 4 of White, Kiwior, Gabriel and Tierney. Jorginho would probably keep his place after a good game against Newcastle. Xhaka starts because he always do. We would see Saka, Odegaard and Martinelli behind Jesus, but I would personally like to see Eddie given a chance today. We are at home, we are playing Brighton and Eddie can do a job.
Trossard would like a game too, but unless we play in 2 competitions, I doubt we will see much of him. Mikel has his favorites and there is nothing wrong in that if it works. The only problem is, it don’t keep people happy. We need a strong bench, but good players don’t like to settle on the bench. A conundrum Mikel has to overcome, and we still have ESR and Eddie waiting, Balogun, Lokonga and Tavares returning, Saliba and Tomiyasu injured.
I would love to see a clean sheet. It felt sh*t to David De Gea winning the golden glove. I wouldn’t have mind if it was Ederson or Allison but lol.
Right, a short one today. Lets beat them seagulls and continue the quest of being the best out there. If you are saddened with missing out the trophy after being top of the table virtually the whole season, here’s some positive – we will be playing in Champions League next season, we will be fighting again for the trophy, Spu*s might not even make to Europa and London is red through and through.
#COYG
Marc
I reckon the squad will expand slightly given CL involvement, but Arsenal really need to get better at extracting value from sales (they couldn’t get any worse could they…)
In addition to Xhaka, sell Holding and Eddie Unket (and maybe Tomiyasu if we can get a fee) . Various others (Vieira, Lakonga, Patino) need loans and some will go (Reiss, Elneny).
Marc, Holding, Lokonga, Nelson. If KT and ESR go too then they’ll need replacing. Would obviously prefer Viera to be moved on over ESR.
Hoping City win CL as feel Guardiola’s work will be done. Even City might struggle to stay focussed if they win the Treble!
@KP
They definitely have to get better like 3.8mill for Leno when everyone yhought +10mill, embarrassing!!!
Kilroy, I know it’s not enough but we’re getting a few more million from Fulham as Leno helped them stay up.
Bob, I certainly share your optimism that Pep may consider it mission complete should he win the CL. But I have always felt that City have never allowed themselves to become dependent on any one manager as we and utd did. Can’t see his departure being their death knell unless they make a massive mistake with his replacement ( Liverpool appointing Souness comes to mind).
Bob
So the quality signings you want will be squad players?
Nelson has basically done bugger all, Holding has already been replaced by Kiwior, Lokonga hasn’t been seen for months and only made a couple of starts.
Really seems you’re tinkering round the edges. If you think “quality” players will sign for Arteta to be squad players when Arteta can’t rotate you’re delusional. We spent £35 million on Vieira and you want to move him on already.
Courtois reestablishing himself as the world’s best keeper here tonight,but he is helpless to stem the tide such is the dominance of City. Alison and Ederson also in the conversation. Maignan is also class. There is a dearth of really top class keepers though. Very disappointed we didn’t move for Maignan or Pope but given Arteta’s desire to utilise a sweeper keeper I understand him passing on Pope even if I don’t agree with it. Ramsdale won’t improve further I fear,if anything he could regress. I don’t think you can teach the type of composure and calming influence that the likes of Seaman had. Ramsdale has tremendous reflexes but that isn’t enough in itself. Time will tell I guess and I genuinely would like to be wrong. I love my goalkeepers and its a long time since we’ve had one that I truly rated as top class.
Marc,
When Arteta’s reign is over, people will sit down and assess his( and Edu’s) performance in the transfer market. Personally I think it will make abysmal reading. The first wave of departures was akin to selling second hand condoms in a brothel,not only could they not generate any money from sales,it cost them a fortune to get rid of the players in the end.
People have forgiven/ overlooked this on the basis of some idea that these players were all toxic and the club was falling off a cliff.
The second wave is now coming when Arteta tries to sell the players he kept and gave new contracts to or players that he himself signed. What he gets for Eddie( we won’t be offering you a new contract,actually we do need you,100k a week sound alright?) AMN(£20 mil offer from Wolves rejected), Lokonga,Vieira,, Tierney etc will be very revealing.
But most importantly,the players who he bought and are ‘ successes’. Surely then their value has shot up? A couple of years under Arteta’s tutelage and part of a team that finished second,these young players should now easily be exceeding their purchase price. Yet who believes there are clubs out there who would pay more than £50 mil for Ben White right now? £35 mill for Ramsdale? £45mil for Jesus?
There is an argument that the only players whose values are rising, Saka, Martinelli, Saliba were not bought by Arteta.
I realise that this is only one way to gauge the success of a purchase. I also accept that this story isn’t finished yet and judgement must be reserved until it is. But I find it difficult to understand at this point in time where the confidence in our recruitment team is coming from. The idea that they have been doing well to date is something I really struggle with.
And i won’t even begin to consider what happens if the Kroenkes decide to end the sugar daddy approach. How many smaller clubs would pass us by if Artea was asked to operate on a budget similar to theirs? We have become so besotted by City’s spending power we have taken our eye off the squandering of precious resources closer to home. That’s how I see it after 4 years of Arteta anyway.
Bob-just want to preface my statement by saying that we can’t “sell” Nelson, as his contract is expiring
from a position by position basis the following could or should be sold:
Keeper-Turner should be sold and replaced, but not a high priority…he’s simply not good enough…so surprised that after the Leno mishandling we would actually sign someone who’s not good enough with the ball at their feet
Defenders-should sell= Holding & Tomi (not reliable enough due to injury prone nature)
could sell= Tierney, Gabs or Saliba (a lot depends on the latter’s re-upping)
-personally I would have simply replaced Holding and bought another RB, but it’s starting to feel like a bit of another overhaul, which speaks volumes about our manager’s inability to properly identify then coach-up players…in a perfect world I would replace White with a bona fide RB like Cancelo, just for example, which would allow White to be a cover piece for multiple backline positions, sell Tomi and Holding, add a younger depth CB, keep Tierney and recall both Nuno and Marquinos, for tactical flexibility purposes…including Kiwor, this would give us a total of 9 defenders
Midfielders-should sell=Xhaka, Lokonga, Vieira, Elneny, Jorginho-(this will never happen as no one would pay us a reasonable amount for any of these players, so unless we’re willing to take a sizeable loss on our more youthful pieces, most will be either here or out on loan)
could sell=Xhaka, Partey & ESR-(albeit regarding the former I’ll believe it when I see it)
this is indicative of our total mishandling of this position, in that those we should be eliminating from the equation will be difficult to move, like Lokonga, Elneny, Vieira, Jorginho and even Xhaka, and those we shouldn’t be moving on from, Partey & ESR, could likely be out the door…the sense is that this will be a positional reboot and rightly so in many regards…personally I would keep only ESR, Ode and Partey, then I would add 3 more pieces, two of whom should be of the seminal readymade variety, but I’m very skeptical this could happen in light of our contractual cock-ups
Forwards-should sell=Eddie & Trossard (plus Nelson on a free)-only said Tross because he can’t really compete with Marts out wide
-could sell=Balo
frankly we need to add in all 3 frontline positions, which will be a tough ask…as such, Trossard and Eddie are likely going nowhere…would rather we kept Balo, as he supplies us with something a little different, as Eddie is simply a poor man’s version of Jesus…still not sure Jesus can score enough to be the regular starter, but I doubt we’ll be investing in an upgrade this summer…I likewise wouldn’t be surprised if we paid well over the wage number to keep Nelson, much like Eddie, simply to avoid another transfer fee
the very fact that we need to make so many moves, both incoming and outgoing, simply to try and compete with the big boys should be a real indictment on our managerial duo, in light of the total monies which have already been spent on this project, but clearly that doesn’t appear to be a concern from ownership…one might even suggest if management felt we were truly a competitive force, as they’ve proclaimed, then why would so many moves be required…ultimately it will be difficult to move Lokonga, Vieira, Jorginho and Eddie, due to the monetary implications, so if we need to sell in order to buy, some big names are going to have to be sacrificed, which could result in a 2 steps forward 4 back scenario…should be an interesting off-season
Aluminiasaynomore-we’re definitely on the same page when it comes to MA/Eud’s bang average at best record when it comes to all things asset management related
TRVL,
We are. It’s one of the reasons I can’t get behind this management team. I genuinely don’t trust their ability to identify and purchase quality players. People have talked recently about the invincibles, unsurprisingly as they were the last Arsenal title winning team. But if the current team are to be mentioned in the same breath surely at this stage,4 yrs and hundreds of millions spent, he’d have brought even 1 player into the club that could get onto that team. Just 1. But no. And incredibly the story is he now needs another 4 or 5. I simply don’t accept that a world class manager/ coach operates at this pace and requires this much leniency and financial support. Its ‘ jam tomorrow ‘ all over again.
Almunia
Agree even any signings that are deemed to be good signings were hardly strokes of genius – Ode is a good player but Madrid not only wanted to off load him but needed to sell him. I bet we paid asking price, the Ben White fee was ridiculous my big worry now is we’re going to sell Saliba due to his contract winding down and will only get £30 odd million for a player who’s going to be the next VVD or better.
“But no. And incredibly the story is he now needs another 4 or 5.”
Its the fan boy narrative – always push the goalposts to the next horizon and make excuses. The current squad is 99% Arteta’s but its not good enough but that isn’t Arteta’s fault it was the Butler in the Library or the man on the grassy knoll or whatever bullshit diverts attention that Arteta bottled it again.
minus Ode, not a single sellable asset has been brought into the fold by this management team…by this I mean someone who’s current value actually exceeds their original purchase price…what this team really needed was some readymade seminal players in their early to mid-20s to link with those who had already fallen into their proverbial laps…in the past this would never have happened because of our frugal spending practices under Wenger, but the fact that this script changed drastically under Arteta yet the kind of targets we opted for never really changed is inexcusable
btw Saliba’s current market value is lower than what we paid for White, which is an even tougher pill to swallow considering that White isn’t even playing in the position he was brought into play…this is another reason why I don’t believe whatsoever that Arteta had any intention of bringing back Saliba as a regular starter
fine if people think Mudryk wasn’t worth the monetary squeeze, but at least he was a like-for-like Marts cover/competition piece with a long runway and a huge up-side…instead we paid full price for a player put out on the curb and shopped around by his former club, who neither fits the positional script, unless Arteta was wiling to play him instead of Xhaka, nor the age-based narrative…as for our other winter move, we pursued Caicedo, but we were unwilling to go far enough to secure his services, even though he was always going to be even more expensive going forward…he was likewise a young player with positional flexibility, who fit both our current scripts and had proven himself in the PL…instead we took another Chelsea castaway who was about to lose his starting place to the returning Kante and gave him term to boot, which was undoubtedly going to create some problems down the road…these are just the most recent reasons why I wouldn’t trust this duo with another transfer window windfall
just as a follow-up to my previous post, once again I’m not suggesting that either Tross or Jorginho are hacks, as they both possess some valued skills, but they’re not the kind of difference makers who were going to lift us to a title and they were likewise always going to be more problematic purchases come the summer window
please keep in mind that Tross has only scored 1 goal for us, whereas he scored 7 with BHA…now to be fair, he was more of a regular starter for BHA, where he averaged about 25 more minutes per match, and he has produced more assists here, but he only made 1 statistical contribution against a top 8 side since arriving in North London
TRVL I think you may be missing the point. By replacing squad players with first team quality players, it allows Arteta to rotate without losing significant quality. This change of ‘depth’ would mean we ought to be able to compete on more than one front and enable us to absorb injuries in a way that was not possible this last season.
Afternoon all.
The way things seem to be looking is KSE is going have to financially dig deep to back some major changes. Stan will look foolish if he doesn’t after almost winning the league. If we can’t shift Jorginho, then he’ll be good for lesser cups organising our younger lads. Jorginho is an enabler type of player; it’s just a shame he’s in his footballing twilight years.
A good professional worth keeping if there are no takers.
If we’re going to mount another serious challenge, because I believe once we were in our stride this season we started to believe and put on a title assault. That can’t be denied where the milk has been spilt and the tears are now dry: just feelings of emptiness prevail.
Quite honestly sitting at my computer I don’t know what to think or worse write. Are we going to dance the Hokey Cokey with all the ins and outs? Will it fatally be more outs than ins? When will there be an end to the Arteta & Edu madness of blowing hot and cold?
The answers my friends are not blowing in the wind, but will come next season with somewhat of an overview to be obtained by the summer’s comings and goings. The focal targets have to be the title and CL cup in that order. 2nd is our current barometer, so first is the only move up!
By Arteta madness my thinking is simple; don’t make the same mistakes covers everything really.
Results will do Arteta’s talking for him where I don’t think he will be so easily forgiven if we’re 6th by Xmas and looking sad. However, if we’re neck and neck with City keeping Pool, Chavs, and Manure below us by Xmas, then it will be a very happy xmas for us Gooners.
I’m hoping for the latter as I’m sick of losing when we shouldn’t be.
All eyes on KSE, Arteta and Edu then for the next 12 weeks where I’m sure the LIR oversight committee will be highlighting observations from pre season to end August.
@Bob
In theory what you say is correct but you and I know that Arteta doesn’t rotate, the players on the bench are for in player management. Look at the graph that Pedro posted Arsenal is dead last in changes in the starting XI. In addition if you don’t rotate you get player fatigue as well as players that are not rotated in are rusty and need plating time.
In addition we all know with Arteta’s stubbornness this will not change. For me the summer TW will furthermore show up the inexperience of player recruitment. TRVL put is spot on that the value of the players bought by Arteta they have not increased with the exception of Ode.