Things have been going pretty well for us this transfer window. We have managed to sign Declan Rice, a right profile 24-year old with loads of experience and hungry to achieve more. I don’t know if Rice would be able to fix the problem Thomas had last season, but we have tried to address it. We have got Timber, which allows us the flexibility to use White as CB if and when needed. Last season, we ran out of ideas and bodies when both Tomiyasu and Saliba were out, injured. We had to play Holding because White couldn’t be shifted to CB, and Kiwior is still raw to adapt to the style of play Arsenal does. We have also addressed Xhaka’s immobility with Kai Havertz. Despite his Chelsea’s performances, I am hopeful on this. Kai will prove to be a much better player for us, and will certainly have more runs in him than Xhaka.
We have stop gaps in other places, Tierney is a very decent defender if Zinchenko get injured (again), Nelson/Jesus can cover for Saka at RW, Trossard provides a cover for Martinelli and can play up top too. We have ESR in the mix this season, who can cover for Odegaard. We have a solid, young team who just finished 2nd and is going to fight till death to improve it. They are going to play at the grandest of the stages in Champions League and I’m sure players who fought to get the #10 and #7 shirts at Arsenal would want to prove they deserved it.
So, what is this reality check?
First, we are playing in one of the toughest leagues in the world. Second, last season was a transitional/poor season for most of the top 6 and they are aggressively fixing their problems. Third, it’s not a one-game-a-week for us and Mikel is not very good at rotation I’m afraid. Lets get into the details.
First point is evident. It doesn’t matter if you are Manchester City, Liverpool or Arsenals of the world, you are not guaranteed to win against the likes of Brentford, Brighton or Wolves. Even a newly promoted side like Forests can restrict City to share points. We didn’t make it last season not because we lost to Man City or Liverpool, but because Everton beat us, Brentford restricted us to a draw at home and we couldn’t get past the Southampton defence twice. There’s no guarantee in March 2024 that a team which sits on top can easily beat a team fighting for relegation. This is what makes Premier League exciting and is something you can’t do much about, than to concentrate on your game and improve as much.
Second point is concerning.
- Liverpool – Last season Liverpool fell of the cliff after Mane left. They had a very old and tired midfield too. They have let go Firmino, Milner, Keita and Chamberlain while strengthening their midfield by getting deals done for Szoboszlai and Mac Allister. Again, the same philosophy as ours, bring in young legs but experienced. I’m sure Klopp would be serious to get back into the mix after having missed the Champions League spot.
- Man City – Well, Man City have only brought in Kovacic as of now and half of their title winning team is off to Saudi. That’s a good news till you check that Pep is still there and he can build a team from scratch whenever he wants. All the money that is coming in, he will use it to fix what’s getting broken. They have unlimited money and one of the best managers in the world.
- Chelsea – The best transfer for Chelsea has been their manager. They have brought in Pochetino, who is great in building a solid team playing a definitive football. All the talents in the world and they were poor because there wasn’t anyone to manage them. Now, they have one and they have let go of the players that weren’t performing in their system. Mason Mount, Havertz Pulisic, Koulibaly, Kovacic, Mendy are all gone and it’s the last transfer window that will help them. The likes of Mudryk from last season are going to improve, and there recruitment is still going on. I personally think they will be the ones to watch out for, and are going to make life tough for everyone around.
- Man United – Well, Ten Hag is doing what Arteta has done at Arsenal. He is another non-emotional manager, has let go of De Gea and replaced him with Onana. Maguire has already been stripped of captaincy and he has brought in Mason Mount from Chelsea to strengthen his midfield. United are in Champions League, they have added motivation to invest and ETH is a very capable manager in building a team which can fight. They are going to be a pain in the arse, as always for us Arsenal.
- Newcastle United – They are the new addition in top 6. David Howe has gotten them the Champions League spot, after bringing the likes of Guimaraes. They are yet again in the market trying to improve on their 4th place finish, and has already brought in Sandro Tonali from AC Milan. Another oil money club to fight against, with virtually unlimited money and a manager who has done pretty well after taking over a relegation fighting Newcastle a year and half back.
- Tottenham – Well, they are going to be sh*t always, so nothing to worry about them.
It’s not going to be easier this season, that’s for sure.
Coming to the last point – we are all aware of Arteta’s stubbornness in playing a fixed starting XI, with last 10 minutes subs. It has it’s Pros and Cons. When these players play together regularly, they develop a chemistry and understanding about each other’s game. Also, a winning team is very high in confidence and any changes to it likely causes a small disruption. However, not all players are built like Saka or White, and playing them week-in, week-out can cause them fatigue and injuries. We have seen Partey broken, we have seen Saka not playing to his best, and we have also seen what happens when a player not rotated enough comes back in the fold when one of such cases happens (with Holding).
I’m in the favor of sticking to a playing XI but not that rigidly. It’s as simple as subbing out Saka a little bit earlier if we are 2-0 up against Forest. Showing a little bit of confidence for the bench players against the bottom half teams can keep these players fresh for the important games.
This season is going to test Arteta on his rotational skill. We are going to play twice a week and it’s not like no one would care this time. He will have to manage players in a way that they do not get injured, do not get stale, do not feel dejected; all while keeping them motivated for every minute they play.
As I said the last time, it’s going to be a tough season for the Manager, having to manage the team in two important competitions while improving on the last season’s performance; players after staying on top of the table for around 30 weeks and not winning; fans because we have seen improvement and the frustration and anger has changed to hope.
Right, see you in the comments.
It’s infuriating Marc. Call a spade, spade and no one gives a f.
There is nothing wrong in treating money as your biggest motivation.
Tony-it appears as if some on here only read what they want to read and as such it emboldens them to once again lean into their cut and paste narrative which suggests that anyone who doesn’t kiss the fucking ring can’t see a good thing when it’s right in front of their respective faces…if some people had read what I had actually wrote they would know that I acknowledged the obvious positives but, in doing so, I didn’t have to whore myself out by buying into a load of contrived bullshit hook, line and sinker…say hey to Bob for me…Cheers
TVRL .hahahahaha
Bob-thought you might enjoy that…I even made sure to include a run-on sentence, without the requisite punctuation, in the hopes of triggering you even more…have a good one?
Knew you had a sense of humour under that disguise of pomposity.
ditto, I guess…although the jury’s still out on the sense of humour front
to no one’s surprise, I’m going to be incredibly disappointed if Caicedo ends up at Chelsea…looks like Poch is going to run with a smaller squad in the hopes of reinventing their organizational wheel in just 1 season, which could be feasible considering their lack of European football…of course, whenever someone shortens their bench and has some success doing so, every Artetite will mistakenly claim that our manager showed them the way…much like the AKBers, Artetites tend not to watch a wide array of matches that don’t involve Arsenal, so they tend to lack the requisite amount of context/nuance required to properly evaluate such matters…obviously I don’t want Chelsea to succeed, but if they do acquire Caicedo, they will have a whole host of players who I had hoped would land here, which always sucks shit, especially knowing that it wasn’t like in the past when such players would have been well outside our financial comfort zone
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jul/22/arsenal-will-not-sell-partey-despite-rices-arrival-insists-arteta
Good news if true. It’s on record at least.
Hi Bob
Thanks for that piece about Clapton. I’m fascinated by political/religious/cultural links with clubs. It makes it much easier to follow a football team if you’re aligned with their values. That’s why Marc loves Arsenal! 😊
I think I always realised Arsenal was a proper blue-rinse Thatcherite club when I started thinking about Denis and then Peter H-W and the board. Sir Chips, Lady Nina B-S (Bracewell Smith, not bullshit although the cap fits), and then some of the more money – grubbing nouveau riche characters like the Kroenkes, Usmanov all the way down to corporate Tory arselickers like Vinai (a useless technocrat). And I just feel it in my water that despite his basque/catalan legacy, Arteta would vote VOX. I was hooked by the time Arsenal revealed themselves as being run by stuffy, solipsistic moneyed Tories of course.
Right wing nastiness also manifests itself on LG. Cunts like politically dense Pedro, Racist Un (yuck! – a fucking stain who Pedro enables) sad, thick AFCF and the execrable book phobic (nouveau) Rich.
County don’t share Clapton’s credentials but some clubs in the main leagues are certainly more socialist inclined than others e.g. Liverpool, Leeds, Celtic and Cardiff and some others abroad e.g. St Pauli, Marseille, Rayo Vallecano and Atalanta.
Look out for County’s result in the Faroes next Thursday. Yes, I’ve looked into flights but it won’t happen… It’ll end in tears but I’m enjoying the ride at the moment, not least because it’s a welcome distraction from the TW.
I hope you all enjoy the women’s WC. The England team seem like really good eggs. No Harry Kane, Pickford, Kyle Walker equivalents!
Kroenke, will look out for County result. All supporters to varying degrees, get that sense of belonging. Recommend this supporter’s story.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/what-our-stateside-tour-means-us-supporters
Nice one Bob, thanks for sharing that because I seldom, if ever, frequent the dot.com. I should look there more often.
Placide’s story about listening to reports on radio and relying on scraps from newspapers sounds familiar. Ambarish – Placide sounds like exactly the type of fan we should try to get on here.
Kroenke
Pedro is no where near a traditional Tory – he’s the type who would’ve gone full scale Bliar.
It should also be noted that PHW’s go to newspaper (I use the term loosely) was the Mirror or Star (can’t remember which).
Unless I’ve missed it – I’m actually enjoying having a summer off from fanatically following transfer rumours and gossip – we don’t seem to be moving any bodies out. If players like Partey and Tierney are leaving I’d like to see it got done so squad replacements (not expecting multimillion players to come in to replace them) can be brought in and settle.
Next seasons going to be a dogfight and we can’t decide to start the season in mid September.
Hi Marc
It’s a confusing world. You probably regard him as a dangerous Trotskyite, but ‘TBliar’ (I like what you did there…) WAS and IS a Tory. In 1997, every Tory should have been delighted that he was there to continue the project of choking workers and fellating big business leaders. That illegal needless war in Iraq came from wanting to please his political stablemates in the republican party and desperately trying to satisfy his small dick energy by being a footnote in British Military History. Starmer genuinely was left at one point (a Pabloite no less) but by the time I knew him he was a Blair devotee and we had discussions like this about New Labour.
We’ve discussed PHW and his taste in newspapers. It’s amusing to think if him wiping his arse on Robert Maxwell’s ‘output’ but the old bastard would not have time for the Mirror after getting through the DT, Times and the FT every morning. I sometimes read the RW press just to remind myself why I’m a revolutionary socialist at heart. Maybe Old Peter Hates-Workers did it for the opposite reasons?
See that article I posted above (from that Marxist Leninist arse-rag, aka the Guardian. It suggests TP is staying. Tea-bagtastic.
Kroenke
I regard Bliar as the closet thing to the anti Christ we’ll ever see.
KP-regardless of all the chatter from yesterday, Partey’s pending stay has far more to do with him not wanting to go to the Saudi League than MA viewing him as a vital asset…even at the best of times, Juve aren’t in the business of paying top dollar for players, so expecting anything different, esepcially when it comes to someone with his particular age profile, is an unrealistic ask…of course, this is likely MA’s not-so-slick way of driving Partey’s value up to a more reasonable level by attempting to flip the “on the outs” script that’s been bandied about since before the window officially opened…amateur hour parlour trick
as you know, I’ve always been a proponent of keeping Partey for another season, especially if we employed some serious load management and shipped Jorginho…just don’t see how this can work with all 3, as Rice will always be first on the sheet and MA’s high-press, single pivot tactics requires a more advanced 8…now I guess it might make sense against the big boys to deploy a Rice/Partey combo pack or at times we could deploy Rice in the 8 and Partey as the sole DM, but the former is only required in a handful of matches and, as to the latter, MA is certainly not known for his tactical wizardry…furthermore, the very fact that Jorginho appeared to have a plausible out, with Lazio, yet declined, makes me feel like he was told that Partey was on the outs and he was the clear number 2 behind Rice…Cheers
Just to make clear when I talk about Partey leaving that’s not because I want to sell him its what I think is going to happen.
Marc
Here’s my first eleven of British political antichrists. For the sake of balance, I’ve included some absolute bastards that have represented the three main Ingerlish parties. It wasn’t difficult.
Peter greed-Is-good Mandelson
Nick shagging-bastard Clegg
Anne huge-bristols Widdecombe
Neil sellout Kinnock
Paddy hanging-out-the-back Ashdown
Bojo (of course. The Granit Xhaka of the team)
Liz lettuce Truss
Tony middle east peace
envoy Blair
Thatch (another ever present – the Saka of the team)
Cecil the impregnator Parkinson
Norman Adolf Tebbitt
I’d even want Spurs to beat that corrupt shower of shite.
Vieira
I should tell Partey about my qualification in Saudi law generally, and the specific codes on corporal punishment. In brief, teabagging is not illegal.
I get your twist on the Tet statement. Like you, I trust him about as far as I could throw him. But even someone as duplicitous as him would not renege on the statement about not selling him in this window. If I’m proven wrong, I’ll change my name to Kroenkephile!
2:30 in the night here, but football love is bigger. Declan starts, Timber is at RB and Eddie in place of Jesus…