In the words of Peaky Fucking Blinders, we have got a curse. Call it The Emery Curse, or the Emi’s, but we have one.
Last season, in the first game against Villa, we lost 1-0 after they scored in 07th minute and we never recovered. They were coming off of a win at City and they beat us. We did create some chances later on but never converted it. In the home game, we lost 0-2 when we conceded both goals in last 10 minutes. We were just 2 points behind Man City with 6 games to go, and a loss to Villa confirmed our title challenge was over. We needed a win so much at that point and they denied us. I hate them more than Spurs these days. The two losses costed us the title at the end.
Anyways, it’s a new season and a new fight. We take on Aston Villa at Villa Park today in a 5.30 evening kick off.
In the team news, there would be some surprises. Fabio Vieira is most likely going back to Porto on a loan so won’t feature today. Tomiyasu and Tierney remains unavailable due to injuries. We are most likely going ahead with the same team that featured against Wolves. A back 4 of White, Gabriel, Saliba and Zinchenko; a midfield of Partey, Rice, and Odegaard; a front 3 of Saka, Havertz and Martinelli. I would love to see Timber in place of Zinchenko starting today though, he is one for the future and improves our left side by a margin. Martinelli hardly gets any support from Zinchenko and that’s the difference between the outputs of him and Saka.
Gabriel Jesus is also not available as the rumours goes.
Mikel Arteta had to say this in the pre-match conference yesterday,
on how big of a test Villa away is so early in the season:
It’s one of the toughest places to go for sure. We know that, we’ve prepared really well to understand what we have to do to go there and win the game.
on the importance of getting a result against Unai Emery personally:
Personally? I don’t do things personally, I just have the will to win and prepare the team in the best possible way, regardless of who we are playing against.
source: Arsenal.com
It’s tough because we lost both games against Villa in the best season of Mikel Arteta. For the Unai Emery question, Mikel is fooling everyone including himself. He would have sleepless nights thinking how Emery got the better of him and I am hoping he has an answer to that today.
There are some things happening in the transfer window. Forest looks really interested in Eddie Nketiah and we have rejected a £25m and Forest will agree for £30m me thinks.
Fabio Vieira is going on a loan to Porto (from where we got him 2 years back). This one is a strange move, because we have sold ESR already and we would be left with only Odegaard as an attacking mid with no back up or competition. There are talks that the management is very impressed with Ethan Nwaneri and he would deputize Odegaard.
Merino deal is almost confirmed, he will be joining us from Real Sociedad for a £28m free. I have not seen much of him, but we know Rice is more of a #6 and we needed a #8 after Mikel decided to shift Kai up top.
We have also rejected a Wolves move for Aaron Ramsdale on loan + option to buy. We are in a favor of a permanent move for Aaron, and we have already decided a replacement in Joan Garcia from Espanyol.
Hardly a week left, there would be some chaos at the end, lets see how it pans out for us.
Right, that’s all for today. See you during the game.
Rumours that Palace are still interested in Nkeitah.
Now I may be turning cynical into an order for extra thick tinfoil but Palace is local to where Eddie was born he’s a London boy why the fuck would you want to move to Nottingham?
So Eddie / his agent let’s it be known to Palace that they’re his prefered option, plays hardball on terms with Nottingham etc winding down the clock so with Palace the only option and the clock ticking Arsenal are forced to reduce the fee etc. Eddie keeps his £100k per week, Palace save a chunk on the fee and fuckwit and co wonder why they couldn’t sell a glass of chilled water in the desert.
£30 million? If we get £20 million I’ll be shocked.
Tony
You should have heard the Sky commentators on Saturday talking about Havertz – you’d have thought we had the reincarnation of Henry who’d just had an off spell with Chelsea.
Marc—agree on both counts…Sky are the same outlet that somehow suggested we “lured” Havertz from Chelsea, thereby giving the wholly misguided impression that they were determined to keep him no matter the cost…we haven’t witnessed such delusional coverage of a player since Xhaka became everyone’s favourite player after a half decade or so of below average play…in the end, he did manage one viable season, albeit not nearly as fantasic as some would suggest…only at Arsenal could we replace one underwhelming player with an even more underwhelming one, yet be so fucking elated about it
as for Eddie, I’m of a similar belief regarding the whole Forest v. Palace gig…hopefully Palace’s early struggles will encourage them to buy him outright or at the very least take on his full wages in a loan agreement with an option to buy…I must admit I’m a bit concerned that if this were to happen we might opt for a lesser option simply for coverage purposes, as I discussed in my late night post
in regards to Sterling, even though a good chunk of pundits have connected the dots between MA and the former City standout, I was pleasantly surprised that when asked about the possibility of pursuing him MA responded with an emphatic”No”…now we all know you have to take everything he says with a large grain of salt, but the fact he didn’t beat around the bush is encouraging
finally, there’s been some chatter regarding our potential pursuit of Evan Ferguson, seemingly on a one year loan…not a big fan of this for two reasons…firstly, his form has dropped off significantly since his stellar rookie campaign and secondly, he seems as if he might be injury-prone, as he missed 15 matches last season…tbh anyone who can’t supplant Welbeck, especially at this juncture, isn’t someone I want to rely on for goals
I always find it encouraging whenever I can find an actual balanced account of our performances, so with that in mind here’s how ESPN viewed our win against Villa, “this wasn’t a case of Arsenal imposing themselves on the opposition; it was a case of two teams with markedly different styles going at it and one of them, Villa, stumbling when it most mattered”…far too often nowadays nuance is largely ignored, especially when a club, like ours, is determined to push a particular narrative regardless of the mitigating facts…if we really want to achieve greatness, this sort of honest self-reflection is pertinent, otherwise we will continue to fall victim to the same old trappings that plagued us under our former skipper
at this exact moment, I unequivocally believe that we’re the second best side in the PL…of course, Pool isn’t far behind, especially if they can add a piece or two this week…as for the rest of the pretenders, it’s difficult to predict who will rise to the occasion….I will say this though, if Chelsea can somehow repeat the performance they put on yesterday week-in and week-out, all bets are off, but I very much doubt that will transpire
where I have a beef with this club and our manager is the fact that they don’t seem to know how to and/or care enough about taking this organization to the highest of heights…right now we’re a top 10 side who on our best day, with a little luck, can beat anybody on the planet, but only if there’s nothing truly at stake…that’s the fucking rub…that’s why this reminds me of the summer of Cech…it’s not like I don’t understand why Calafiori and Merino were brought in, it’s just that you don’t make these kind of purchases until you properly redress our most pressing needs, especially if Zinchenko, Gabs, Timber, Partey, Tomi and Jorginho are all staying…as such, the strategy seems far more like the Wenger trophy years than a legit attempt to restore, or even better, what was on offer a decade prior…as you’re all well-aware, I despise the very notion of having a built-in excuse for failure, which has happened 3 years running now…so the last thing I want to hear is our manager speaking about our need for a readymade Striker if we come up short again
top 10 side in Europe
I wish I shared your optimism TRVL, but the Chavs looked the real deal against Wolves like a sleeping giant waking up for the first time since RA left the club. The Chavs are reportedly in for VO, where if that happens I see the Chavs outscoring everyone in the PL.
Their win wasn’t luck; they tore Wolves to shreds, but were sloppy defensively in the first half.
In Enzo Maresca they have a very experienced manager who Father Todd trusts, a novelty I know, but they are buying the right profile players to add to the squad, and are getting rid of players nearing being past their prime, as in Sterling. Madueke was on fire and can become a much better consistent version of Sterling or that’s what Enzo thinks and was right to play the worthy off his hat-rick lad.
Sorry, TRVL, going to have to disagree with you here, a novelty I know because I highly respect your footballing views from your years in then game, but we are not the 2nd best side in the league today. We would have been had we bought Eze and VO.
My prediction for the league come May.
City
Pool
Chavs
Us/one of four other teams
I see us potentially dropping points against the following teams:
City home and away
Pool home and away
Brighton away
Spuds away
Newcastle away
Chavs maybe home and away
Manure away and maybe a draw at home.
Bournemouth away
Palace away
Our run in is as follows from March 8:
Manure Away
Chavs Home
Fulham Home
Everton away – what are the odds Dyche grabs a draw?
Brentford Home
Ipswich Away
Palace Home
Bournemouth Home
Liverpool Away
Newcastle Home
Southampton Away – another past banana skin game where Southampton have been a bogey team from the past.
Probably our toughest run in since El B arrived where we have City home on Feb 1st.
I think we can maintain another decent home form this season, but if El B keeps playing Timber LB and White RB I foresee problems because although decent at times, White is not a natural RB: he’s a very good CB and Calafiori and Kwior are good for out LB.
White doesn’t have that natural balance on the ball in that he’s not comfortable and why he makes so many mistakes. Same with Rice also not a natural on the ball but can be direct in a bulldozing way moving vertically up the pitch asa Vieira of old but nowhere near as good.
Timber is defensively sound and has good movement on the ball where I see Timber a much better fit for Saka in the final third. Will El B see this? It means dropping White, so a resounding NO!
Pets ‘R El B I’m afraid where form has little value compared to El B’s ‘Pets’ status where there is much previous El B form here, such as Willian and now Havertz with several in-between.
Zinchenko is well past his use by date, and why no other club wants him or his dumb wages: take a bow our dream team for never learning that players on top wages who are below what we need by some margin, cannot be sold without our paying players off to leave.
If, and it’s a very big if for me we can take points from City, Chavs, Pool and Manure in our run in, where we will deserve to win the league providing we haven’t dropped unnecessary points over the darkest part of winter, including the Xmas fixtures, which are much kinder, in that we play lower teams bar January.
Everton home on Dec 14
Palace Away Dec 21
Ipswich Home Dec 26
Brentford Away Dec 29
Brighton Away Jan 4th
Spuds Home Jan 15
All winnable games with Palace & BHA away and Spuds being our toughest tests. Will Eddie make us pay for selling him? BHA look hard to beat at home if the Manure game was anything to go by.
In my mind we have 4 days to save our winning the PL trophy season with the right incoming players. Merino and one other of similar level is not the key to unlocking the PL trophy cabinet, and us winning the League for the first time in over 20 years.
We will continue to be unbalanced on our left and Marts will be rendered to be at about 50% of his potential through lack of support. This means we are easier to defend against on our right side with double and triple teams on Saka, and closing their triangle spaces we like to manoeuvre around in tight areas, in the final third.
Havertz will score, but nowhere near enough, and when Ode fades from being in the red zone after New Year or is injured we will have big problems in servicing our front 3.
I’m sticking with 4th or worse, TRVL: I hope I am hopelessly wrong, but from what we’ve witnessed so far in the first couple of games, our first 2 wins were far from convincing where we could easily have dropped points if Wolves and Villa hd taken their chances.
We look far from convincing playing that same wash, rinse and repeat football that comes as no surprise when you look at our incomings.
Same again this season, we’ll look like champions in many games until we play the top 8, especially away, and then our wheels will start to come off as we drop points.
We are tight defensively but could be tighter with RB and LB players in their best positions.
We are a mess in midfield bar Ode and either Partey or Rice at 6. We have no specialist 8 AMF which makes our LW ineffective unless cutting into the box as Trossard does, but I think Marts is not allowed and has to be hugging the touchline.
We lack first time potency in the final 3rd. Havertz needs at least 3 clawer chances to score. Saka can score at will when not overwhelmed by defenders. White isn’t a tricky midfielder with 2 quick feet. He’s a lumbering CB with some reasonable skills in his locker, but not for RB. Same for Rice when in the final 3rd does Xhaka impersonations.
4th is my best prediction for this season maybe 5th?
This is on the basis of current play for the last 2 games.
Tony—I certainly understand why you might believe otherwise and I obviously agree that we don’t have enough clinical passing/finishing up top, but I do think we’re a cut above our closest competitors when it comes to the defensive end of the pitch, minus City of course…now this dynamic could change if Saliba suffers a significant injury or MA starts playing musical chairs with our backline, now that we have so many starting options
Pool has already started two different CBs beside VVD, several of Chelsea’s best defenders have been incredibly injury-prone and United still starts Harry and Casimiro…as for Villa, I do respect the CB duo of Konsa and Pau, but I think they’re very beatable on the edges, unless Maatsen maintains his form from last season at Dortmund…the story is very similar when it comes to the Spurs, although I think they’re a notch below Villa at all 4 positions…that said, I do like the paciness of their left side defenders when van de Ven and Porro are paired up
truth be told our settled nature, when it comes to 3 of our 4 backline positions, has given us a decided advantage, which is why it was so perplexing that we brought Calafiori onboard, especially if our intention was to have Timber takeover for Zinchenko…this simply bolsters my view that the former Bologna man was brought here to replace Gabs, which if true we should have pushed to get him in earlier so we could start the season with our supposed best 4 defender options on the pitch…btw I agree with the notion of starting Timber on the right with Saka, as the former’s ability to play out wide and tuck inside would create serious headaches for any opposition…this is why I discussed the possibility of deploying a back 3 with wingbacks when we first signed Timber, considering that White was a RCB at BHA
all that said, I would much rather we pursued a far more offensive course by bringing in an Ode-type player for the left side of the pitch, along with a readymade Striker, but what are the chances of that happening with MA in charge…in order to do that he would have to be willing to use Havertz as more of a bench option, go back on the assurances he gave Rice about his nonsensical final third dreams and be willing to concede possession cheaply at times, which happens more often when you attack/counter with pace…I can’t even imagine one of those things happening, let alone all 3…so even though there’s been a lot of chatter regarding VO, now that it appears as if he can be had for vastly cheaper than originally thought, I think if we do buy a Striker it will be someone who’s more of a cover piece with a Havertz-like profile…in my estimation, this would be a serious mistake both for this season and beyond, as it might negatively impact our ability to get a “real” Striker next off-season
TRVL
You make a compelling case for being positive, and hard to disagree with our back four’s resoluteness. They will maintain the possibility of keeping up with the pack, but just not over 38 games with the imbalance in MF and attack.
Pool will settle defensively, as will Manure and the Chavs. Villa as you say are better equipped now, especially as Onana gets used to Emery’s play.
We have the players to challenge, but not in their best positions where we are still very susceptible if we get key injuries. We’re playing Russian football roulette once again, particularly with Saka, Ode, Partey and Saliba. Rice is also a potential for that list. Tomi and Jesus are already injured after we were told Jesus looked his strongest and fittest during the Wolves game.
As good as our defense was Maya still had to pull off a string of top drawer saves to keep us in both games.
We were no better defensively than the other top 8 teams imho. It’s looking like Maya is going to have to bring an Emi-at-his-best season because of our weakness at LB and RB inversions because of galaxy brain. To correct this he has to drop White: one of his most coveted pets. An injury to Saliba and everyone gets to play in their best positions including White.
Are we getting ready for the inevitable RM calling and as you say Calafiori the ready made Gabs replacement?
Nwaneri and Jorginho are our back up 7 & 8s. Someone recently said Nwaneri is Ode’s back up now, and good enough. With only about 30 minutes PL time under his belt, I fail to see the logic in that PR spin doctoring.
I’m a big Nwaneri fan, but let’s get a few full games under his belt to be up to PL speed, and then make such an assessment.
Let’s see who comes in and leaves in the next 4 days.
If I were to make and educated guess I’d say Ivan Toney will be leading Manure’s line this season and will be hard to stop with Manure’s supporting cast.
Victor Osimhen is reported to be coveted by us and the Chavs but father Todd is baulking at Osimhen’s wages we are led to believe by the bookies using click bait to garner bets.
If we are genuinely in for VO and get him that’s a game changer for us except Havertz will play 8, where he is actually shit. He’s not then right fit for 8. Merino will do a better job there but is more defensively minded at the moment, but El B may change that.
If we get Merino and VO, we have to hope they both hit the ground running to give us a real chance at lifting the trophy come May.
Federico Chiesa is the player the Chavs are interested in over Osimhen and Barca want but their finances are limiting them too much to land the player reports say.
I like Chiesa and think he’d be good for us. Could also fit nicely as a false 9 and AMF8. I’d prefer Chiesa over Merino, and still buy Osimhen and we’d be making the right TW statement with Calafiori. We could be Italian playing through our left side with Marts fat better supported.
It not only would give us balance, but also offer a really good bench with players who can actually change games. Now there’s a novelty.
Tony
If big Gabriel Magalhaes goes to Real this year , it might be a precursor for Saliba leaving next year. Real might have notified the sum of their parts because both compliment each other. Furthermore, Mbape is pals with Saliba whom Mbape dad coached as a kid.
Real is playing a real good Russian roulette
Hoopah
Saliba has had an ambition to play for RM since he was a schoolboy. People that know him from his time at Marseilles confirm his ambition – before he returned to North London he was hoping that RM may have called. If we do not win anything this season then he could be on his bike.
Hoopah
Big Gabs wants to go back to Brazil and play for I think River Plate. He made no secret of wishing to return to Brazil last season, which surprised me knowing how El B would see this as being disloyal. It was probably why Gabs was benched early last season.
Hence the arrival of Calafiori at the expense of Victor Osimhen or Eze. El B can’t risk his defensive efficiency of last season when his midfield is unbalanced making our attack lop sided and mostly one dimensional.
We are already vulnerable down our left, so we’ll see what happens in the TW’s remaining days.
I doubt El B can survive another trophy less season, so a lot to consider for our key players.
I’d be very surprised if RM don’t want Ode back with his seasons’ improvement year on year.
This season and next summer could be a lot of upheaval unless the Kroenkes have a replacement managerial plan in place now or El B actually wins the league.
I’d take either happily but prefer the trophy and let El B go to Barca or RM.
Tony—by “cut above” I meant settled, for the most part, and possibly even better, this year from last, if Timber stays healthy…our possession-based system goes hand-in-hand with MA’s “defend as a team” approach, which is just another attempt by our blunt instrument of a manager to mimic his former City boss…I, like you, see this poor man’s version as a problematic course of action, unless Pep leaves or City gets Juve’d out of the top division…in reality, we aren’t too far apart in our views, as I wasn’t attempting to suggest there’s a wide gulf between us and those sitting 3 through 6, in fact, fine margins would better describe the situation at hand…take for instance your Villa example…I do believe they’re better defensively with Onana, but less so from an offensive capcaity, as I feel that Luiz made considerably more sense as a pivot in their counter-heavy approach…of course, only time will tell
as for Chiesa, I believe he’s on his way to Barca, although that could change as he’s given them a 24 hour deadline to finalize things…from the sounds of things he was really pushing for this move, so much so that he was willing to restructure his current deal to get this deal over the line…imagine if anyone cared that much to come here that they would actually lower their wage demands…that’s what should have happened with the then struggling Havertz, who was clearly on the outs at Chelsea and had few, if any, suitors(certainly none that would have ever offered the wages we gladly gifted him)
with Merino in mind, the club has suggested that “Mikel was a key target for us this summer, and we identified him as a player who can fit perfectly into our squad”…at first blush this sounds outstanding, but only if one totally forgets the fact that the real target was his deeper-lying teammate Zubimendi…so our original intention was to get another 6 so that the world’s most expensive 6 ever could live his ill-suited dreams as an 8, then when that didn’t pan out, we opted instead to buy an 8 to play the 6 to allow our 6 to play as an 8…only at MA’s Arsenal…maybe I’m wrong and we’ll return to the good old days when our backers would lauch endless crosses into the box, which would make more sense with Merino and Havertz in the box, but this would still be an incredibly flawed plan…don’t get me wrong, I think Merino has some positives, both on the pitch and in the locker room, but not if this is going to be another shoehorning fustercluck
we better not be contemplating a move for the oft-injured and underwhelming Calvert-Lewin, as some are suggesting…that’s not what’s needed here!!
“we better not be contemplating a move for the oft-injured and underwhelming Calvert-Lewin, as some are suggesting…that’s not what’s needed here!!”
So that’s a done deal then!
So the Merino deal’s done – does that mean A) Partey’s off? B) our desperate need for a striker will not be dealt with this summer?
Morning all
Good stuff TRVL we are mostly in accord, but with a few grey areas we feel may be different in the final analyses come May.
Merino has joined, so good luck to your time with us Mikel, and hope you can make the 8 your own, and be an attacking force with Marts for our left side, and not a 6 centric/8 afterthought, as TRVL and I have been concerned about.
Partey, Merino, Rice and Kiwior can all play 6. I’d even suggest Timber and Calafiori can also rock up a decent 6 if asked.
Calvert Lewin oh paleeeeaase dear god that is a NO!
We need a decent striker, and not a basement bargain like Merino who I hope is much better than RM’s Ceballos with an even better mindset. Ceballos was as negative and unpleasant as they came and why we didn’t keep him.
I just hope Merino isn’t the new Ceballos, so time will tell.
Marc—you bring up an interesting point regarding the status of Partey…personally I’ve always felt that he was destined to leave here on a free…his age, injury history, exorbinant wages and contract situation make him a rather problematic transfer prospect…no one’s going to pay what he’s truly worth, so he might have more value to us as a depth piece, in case we suffer any significant injuries…how fucking ironic is that?!?
as to your Calvert-Lewin response, the possibility of this coming to fruition, not matter how slim the chances, greatly concerns me…you’re talking about a guy who’s scored a grand total of 15 goals in the past 3 seasons and has missed almost 70 matches during that same span…now he was involved in 38 matches last season, but only tallied a rather meagre 8 goals and 3 assists
we know his name was mentioned around these parts a few years back, after he potted 16 in 20/21, but that seems like a lifetime ago, especially when it comes to his form…problem is he reeks like a late-window reach, especially knowing that he wants out and the club would love to get something for him before he leaves on a free next summer…kind of a perfect storm nightmare
don’t know what I hate more, the notion of us making such a middling maneuver or having to listen/read a bunch of overtly bias Kool-Aid junkies telling me why this was somehow another genius move…when you completely ignore the elephant in the room, it tends to create such a desperate “anything is better than nothing” environment, which is such a shit way to conduct business