Arsenal announced not one but two signings in a day; strange times indeed! Aaron Ramsdale joins as a competition to Leno from Sheffield United and Martin Odegaard is joining us from Real Madrid. Ode was part of the second half of last season on a loan and improved our creativity in the final third.
Both the players are decent, young and with lots of potential. Aaron was Sheffield United’s best player last season, though he couldn’t save them from relegation. It’s one of those things which are being used against him, but you will hardly see a 23 year old keeper in his prime. He is brought as a Leno’s replacement, and will only improve from here. On the attacking side, Ode wasn’t really a standout in the 6 months he spent with us last season but we did see a glimpse against West Ham and a good run of games will surely help him and the team.
Frankly, I’ve been frustrated with the Brentford loss last week and and the way we have been playing from more than an year now. We did get to know that the absence of Laca and Auba last week was due to Covid, and Mikel had to field a team with Martinelli who joined from Olympics 3 days back, and an inexperienced Balogun as CF. We should have still done better but it’s not the time to be negative.
We have got a decent KT cover in Tavares, Lokonga looks hungry and pretty decent, and Martin has a spark in him. Leno is not that comfortable while playing from the back and if Mikel wanted Ramsdale, he would have thought about it I’m sure. We are still to see real potential of Ben White, his first match in red and white was one to be forgotten.
We have next two big matches against Chelsea and City. Both Aaron and Martin won’t be available for Chelsea games I guess, but seeing a team full of potential and the one for the future is raising my hope. I’m not an Arteta fan, but the group of players we have – Saka, ESR, Martinelli, Balogun, KT are brilliant and we just have added two more names to the list. I’m also hoping Partey will be back soon, he has been a stand out in the midfield and we control games better when he is in the team.
Right-o, a short one today, see you in the comments!
