When there’s no Premier League football, it gets boring to such an extent that I have to come up with a weekly round up! Weekly round ups are just rinse and repeat news but you get the privilege of reading it in my words :D.
William Saliba made his international debut this week. It’s an achievement in itself to be in the playing XI for France at an young age of 21. His relationship with Arsenal hasn’t been great till now, but if Edu and Mikel manage to convince him to join the pack of young players we have, it would be a wonderful addition to our defence. We spent quite some money for a future prospect around 3 years back after all!
Lucas Torreira would most probably be joining Fiorentina at the end of this season. He is on loan currently and looks like both parties are happy to make it a permanent move. Of course I will never forget his goal against Spurs and his wild shirt-less celebration in front of the fans. But we need leaders on the pitch and it’s okay to part ways with anyone who is not invested completely.
Bukayo Saka has withdrawn from the England Squad after testing positive for covid-19. Reports from an unknown source confirms even the virus didn’t want an Arsenal man to set foot on Spu*s stadium. Joke aside, we hope it’s an asymptomatic and he recovers quickly. We all love you, B.
If the rumours are to be believed, we have made enquiry about Benfica striker Darwin Nunez. It would be a great addition in my opinion, he is young (only 22), has scored 26 goals in 33 games this season and has been scoring in Champions League. As much as I would have loved a seasoned striker, there aren’t much options available currently and since we are working on project youth, lets just stick with it.
Martinelli’s goal against Watford has been nominated for the Premier League’s Goal of the Month, Saka has been nominated for PL player of the month and Arteta for PL Manager of the month. I am sure all three will be winning their respective nominations!
We have 10 games left, we are sitting in 4th position – 3 points ahead of 5th with a game in hand. Next three games against Crystal Palace (A), Brighton (H), Southamptom (A) are all tough but winnable. These three games will decide our Champions League qualification and I am confident both the manager and players are up for it. We can’t wait to play at the grand level and win!
Thank you again, for coming here and contributing in the comments section! It motivates my lazy arse to write more.
I have been trying to attract some guest posts from my handful of followers on Social Media; this will diversify the content and presents a different view to the readers. If you would like to contribute an article or two, feel free to drop me an email at bloggingwithmb@gmail.com.
On the other post, Kroenkephobe mentioned how Uruguay with a population of 4 million qualified for World Cup – what an achievement! It pains to see India is ranked 104, cricket being the primary reason. If you are a football fan in India, supports whichever team in whichever league – try attending a local match if possible. As much as I would like to see the cricket money being invested in better grounds and infrastructure for football, it’s not going to happen; the only way we can support is by paying for the tickets and cheering for the lads!
Ambarish
Hi. Sadly, I haven’t visited India for over 30 years so it would be fascinating to know how close football is to everyone’s hearts these days. I know cricket is a far greater draw for spectators and players (and as an England and Wales cricket fan, I know just how good Virat, Jasprit and the other stars are!). Is there any prospect of Indian football getting an IPL style makeover? In terms of watching European football, I guess its tough staying awake for 1 and 2 am kick offs. Are there dedicated blogs for Indian teams?
Two other points. That run of games for Arsenal are all winnable in my view. The toughest one will be at Selhurst, but we’re a form team now who have discovered the almost forgotten joys of winning while playing so-so football. I tend to find it’s the pro-Arteta cult members who are unnecessarily jumpy these days. I wonder why?
The handling of William Saliba’s Arsenal career has been a scandal. No one knows what goes on behind the scenes but I cannot imagine he’s been impressed with the way he’s been managed by us to this point. Let’s hope he gets his chance because he’s an upgrade on Holding, Mari and possibly Ben White.
Almunia – I bet you’re watching the Ireland v Belgium game. Is Kenny finally turning things around?
We have an Indian Super League with 11 teams who play each other and the top 4 teams then plays a 2 legged semi final. Final is just one leg and was decided by penalty this season which concluded on March 20th.
Mostly the news publications covers these matches in the same way The Guarding / Telegraph covers minute-by-minute premier league games. I hate to say it but the biggest influence in sports is money and Indian football lacks it. Cricket has it, and what frustrates me is that some of that money can be utilized (initially) to promote Football. There has been attempt to attract big retired names in past (like Chinese, MLS leagues) but ultimately it’s all about money.
Most of my friends are Bayern/Madrid/United/Chelsea supporters, who like me, prefers a night of football than early sleep every week.
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Winning these 3 games would bring us much closer to the qualification. I won’t mind sacrificing two nights of sleep for us to play in Champions League 🙂
Almunia probably is still celebrating last night’s friendly win 😄
Mb,Kroenkephobe,
2 all draw counts as a win over here,you’re dead right! Have to agree, our run in is not the worst, we should cross the line in 4th I think. Crazy that in so doing Arteta will be considered as having justified his appointment. We’re nowhere near that yet for me. He has a very good team now moving in the right direction but that doesn’t guarantee success in any way,shape or form. Too many people with lazy analysis considering the job done. The job of any Arsenal manager is to challenge for or win the league. Granted it can take time but Arteta still has us 20/30 points off the top. Do you think he will have bridge that gap entirely in 2 years? That’s the season after next don’t forget.Because by then he’ll have had 4 and a half years at the helm. And we absolutely must be challenging by then. Thus is Arsenal,not Everton or West Ham. Personally l don’t think he has the skills required to manage a large squad with the necessary variety of personalities required to win a league. His inability to work with players who see the game differently to him is being packaged as him creating a disciplined culture. That’s not how I see it. I believe he hasn’t got the character or vision to blend together different personality types. He is insecure and sees other perspectives as a threat to him which must be immediately removed even if that means giving them away for free. This is not practical in the long term. That’s how I read him anyway.
What do you guys think? Am I being too harsh? Obviously I’m working off a lot of second guessing but how else are we,the plebs, meant to form our opinions??
Almunia
Hi. You put it more eloquently than I could. Arteta cannot harmoniously manage personalities in the dressing room. I’m still sore about the whole Guendouzi farrago. He’s shattered several players’ resale values and served up a number of negative, unwanted competitive records and some seriously turgid football. And the whole Willian episode is entirely discordant with this brave new world of youth that he miraculously created. Moreover, I simply don’t like him (my problem) and I’m not inclined to polish the turdier aspects of his management techniques. There have been several shrewd purchases this year but credit for that is mainly due to Bunga-Bunga Edu surely? That said, the team is on the up and I’m really enjoying the season thanks to some outstanding team displays. I just put my blinkers on when he’s doing his touchline antics which really belittle him and the club. It’s not that I’m intransigent (much!) but the die has been cast for me with the basque bantamweight. I want the team to go further but I remain sceptical about how much further we’ll actually get under the present set up. If I’m proved wrong, great, but I can’t help worrying that this era will be characterised by a quiz show style ‘look at what we could have won’ after spending a king’s ransom.
Yeah,I’ve the same issue,I simply don’t like him and I’m afraid that I’m allowing that to cloud my judgement. Worse,I really really don’t like the tone and style of those who defend him,so that makes me even more unreasonable. But people are so quick to forget. This time last year Arteta was trying to convince Mustafi to sign a new contract. How can that be reconciled with project youth? In short,its this reinventing of the narrative that I rail against as much as anything. To conclude that it’s all been a master plan and backing Arteta was the obvious thing to do is absurd. I don’t even think backing him now is a given,loads of unanswered questions! Shutting down the right to criticise and question him,as is happening on so many forums, is bizarre. Good man Mb for staying open minded. I don’t mind if Arteta proves me wrong,but what’s the point in being a gooner if you can’t voice your opinion on what’s best for the club?
Good stuff Almunia.
Pluralism is absenting itself everywhere, but why that has to happen on football websites is beyond me. Arteta divides our fanbase as did late-Wenger and Emery to a lesser extent. The people running these sites take themselves far too seriously, as if they’re recording the official history of the club or something. Tony Attwood and Pedro are not a journalists! They’re fanboys like us. On the site that must not be mentioned, Pedro (oops, I’ve let the cat out the bag) is deluded enough to think he’s somehow doing the club’s establishment a service by constantly eulogising our mediocre, misanthropic manager. Talk about self-aggrandisement. And don’t get me started on how many of his acolytes are real or simply figments of his imagination. I also suspect he’s not over endowed in the sense of humour department hence the chilly reaction to our puerile attempts at humour last summer!
Have a good one this week you two.
Exactly what my feelings were for Arteta. Things have looked a bit positive recently and a top 4 run is achievable – which is a minimum!
There are few things left which we have to see how Arteta and Edu handles. Saliba, a CF, midfield, loanee who would be back (AMN, Balogun) and players who will leave.
Though I have almost no traffic, I’m a fan just like everyone else. I’m entitled to not like few things happening at the club I follow and die for, and so do you. 🙂
Ambarish
Collectively, the challenge we face is to get a few of the cleverer lads from le grove to ‘defect’ across Checkpoint champagne charlie!
Your material is much more readable than the articles and the btl on le grove. I was not what you might describe a popular poster because I have a low tolerance threshold for gobshites. Nevertheless, Tony, Jamie, Tom, WOAB, Time Up and a good few others are old enough and sensible enough to know the truth.
He’ll blush like a 14 year old when he reads this, but Almunia, on the other hand is/was admired by everyone on le grove til Pedro’s sense of humour failure. Last summer was a massive fucking giggle from start to finish as the transfer window and post season wore on. If you were somehow to plug your next report to mention Almunia, it might help you to gain some traction. You might even try to persuade him to write one of his satires…
In all seriousness Mb,trying to expand your readership is tricky,I have no idea how someone spreads the word about a blog. I’d imagine lots of people read many Arsenal blogs rather than just one so keep leaving your calling card everywhere you go I guess. Building up an audience is tough but you write well imo so people will enjoy returning! As for guest writers I’d say lots of people would like to try penning an article,give you a break and a bit of variety in content. So keep pushing that also. If you’re not loosing money,keep it going, if you’re taking a financial hit then obviously there’s a time limit. But for what it’s worth I enjoy your takes.
Kroenkephobe, time you dusted off o few of those old Highbury memories and took those of us less privileged back through some of your favourite games,players,stories,etc!
Sports blog usually don’t get any traffic from Google since first few pages are almost always occupied by big news agencies. I am trying to build a Social Media following, hopefully that will help.
Readers are hard to get, but they stick for most of the time.
Thank you both! I’ve this set up for 3 years so it’s not gonna go away for at least 2 more years 🙂
Ambarish
How about this as a possible ploy?
Prior to entering the murky world of le grove, I used to go on ‘the Gooner’ blog quite a bit. At that stage the site was run by Kevin Whicher who used to produce some marvellous pre-game reviews. Not too statty but they did contain some numbers on previous games, news about injured players on both sides and insights into each team’s form and strengths and weaknesses. You might also add some quotes from PV4 and Tets’s press conferences plus, and this is crucial a result prediction.
They drew a pretty big response in the days running up to kick off and led to some stimulating debate. Maybe you could do one for the CP game and publish it on Friday afternoon your time? You could then add a sneaky link on le grove and perhaps obliquely mention you’re trying something new (and that two old bastards in the shapes of Almunia and I have been on! ). People love Almunia! Me included – I’m a massive fanboy of his oeuvre. Mwah Mwah!
That will give you a unique selling point over le grove. The Palace game has extra spice because PV is a credible alternative to our very own arm-waving former Everton midfielder.
Bearing in mind just how stupidly competitive a lot of middle aged men are, you could also introduce post of the day (which would guarantee hits as saddos check to see if they’ve won).
If you do decide to try it Ambarish, make it as controversial as you dare – in any direction you like! Bonne chance mon ami.