Preview of the preview of the sequel to the catastrophe

by imothyt

Quick post before I jet off to work.

This week is going to be hectic. I have a conference in California this weekend and I fly out Thursday night. I don’t know how much Arsenal writing I’ll be able to do this week, through to Monday the 6th. The season officially starts on the 12th, so I’d like to get my season preview articles up starting as soon as possible.

To that end, I am thinking about the following and I would love some feedback and suggestions for more:

  1. Ozil’s defense – not just Ozil, but all of the players individual defensive stats. I wrote about Ozil’s lack of defense compared to de Bruyne, Firmino, and Erikson last season but I think we need to look at how all of the front players operate for those teams and how we compare. That should give us a baseline to see improvement this season.
  2. How the defense will change in general: profile Wenger’s defensive style (interceptions by the CB’s), as a baseline to see how Emery changes Arsenal. Especially the midfield of Xhaka, Ramsey, Torreira, Elneny, and Guendouzi.
  3. How does Arsenal get goals for both Auba and Laca? How many more shots do we need to take to have two 20 goal a season forwards? This should look at Arsene Wenger’s odd tendency to not get as many shots as you might expect (because he essentially forbade shots from outside the box) and how Arsenal could increase shots and chance creation.
  4. Big chances: created and conceded. The key stat of the season.
  5. Errors: how many errors did Arsenal concede over the last few seasons and what was Unai’s record at PSG. This should also be an article to refer back to.
  6. Keepers: what is baseline expectations from Cech and Leno in terms of saves% and errors for goals? What do they need to do to exceed baseline?
  7. Arsenal away form. What was Arsenal’s home form versus away form last season, it has to improve!
  8. League table prediction. Using big chances conceded and created last season, plus money spent, can we predict the League table?
  9. Look at the new teams in the League. What do their stats look like? How do they play? Who did they buy?

Please, feel free to suggest other articles.

That’s almost all the time I have but I did want to just take a moment to totally ruin this blog forever and say: I liked the Last Jedi. With the exception of the scene where they go to the casino planet (which was a completely unnecessary side plot and which made the movie 30 minutes too long) I thought it was a pretty good film. If you haven’t seen it and you don’t want any spoilers, stop reading now.

What I totally get, however, is the anger so many people felt at the way the story unfolded. But if you’ll indulge me two theories, I might be able to explain the choices Rian Johnson and executive producer JJ Abrams made.

This film is an intentional destruction of almost everything that came before it. Why did Luke’s lightsaber pick Rey? Nope. Who is Snoke? Nope. How did Kylo Ren go evil? Nope. Who are Rey’s parents? Nope. The love story between Finn and Rey? Nope. And from the moment that he throws the lightsaber over his shoulder to his final scene, the entire character of Luke Skywalker was a giant nope: he abandons the force, he rejects the Jedi calling them arrogant, even the tree burns down along with all the sacred texts.

In a weird way this is so very modern. Both left and right in our political system are in “burn it down” mode. So too was Rian Johnson and I get why that pisses people off. We like our old institutions. We don’t go to Star Wars movies for something new and innovative, these are literally 40 year old concepts written by a Baby Boomer, we go to Star Wars movies for the familiar. But I think Rian Johnson saw his chance to “flip the script”. In a real way this was a “catastrophe” – which in Greek was the word used to indicate the “overturning” moment, the denouement, in a play.

But what’s odd is that JJ Abrams signed off on this film. He was the executive producer. He read the script. He knew exactly what Rian Johnson was up to and bankrolled this film.

That means two things: 1) By destroying much of the old ways, it leaves a clean sheet for Abrams to write whatever he wants. Was Rey really just abandoned by drunks or was that just Kylo Ren being a jerk? But even more to the point, does he even have to talk about those things ever again? 2) Since the Last Jedi was such a divisive film, and he’s directing and producing the next film, that means that he has a chance to make the greatest grossing Star Wars film ever. All he has to do, is make a regular ass old Star Wars film and people will be like “YEAHHHH!” And they will go see it dozens of times. In fact, I think it’s almost impossible for him to screw this next film up.

Anyway, that’s my take. Iconoclast Rian Johnson’s literal catastrophe will be the ashes from which a new narrative will arise, one which will be far more profitable.

Go Star Wars.

Qq

 

102 comments

  1. You liked the Last Jedi?! OK, that’s it I’m done…you’ve pushed me over to being a Spurs fan.
    Seriously… the problem wasn’t the general concept of trying to wipe the slate clean. It was the execution…too many stupid things. The casino plot was only the biggest example. Leia floating through space was silly. Gravity bombs in zero G. Why wouldn’t anyone have ever tried ramming before? Just way too much inconsistency and poor story/directing choices. And before anyone chimes in that I’m complaining because I’m bothered by the diversity in Last Jedi, no. Rogue One was equally diverse, and a good movie. Last Jedi was just not well done.

    1. Leia floating through space is silly but the ability to make things fly by waving your hand at them isn’t?

      I thought the ramming thing was quite brilliant.

      The gravity bombs was dumb. I can point to a million dumb things in every Star Wars movie. How about The Force Awakens? It’s literally laden with idiotic stuff. Return of the Jedi? The only movie worse than Return of the Jedi was Attack of the Clones. I still don’t know what the first three movies are even about.

      My favorites in order are:

      1. A New Hope
      2. Rogue One
      3. Force Awakens
      4. Empire Strikes Back
      5. Solo
      6. Return of the Jedi
      7. It’s really hard to separate out these last three movies because they are so awful. Just from a storytelling position that are truly among the most awful films ever made.

    2. Bothered by diversity in Last Jedi? So now if you don’t like a movie it’s because you’re intolerant? Who comes up with this stuff, seriously? Oh, I know, it’s the Yalie college kids who signed a petition to have their professors fired over an email about Halloween costumes. I don’t have children but if I did I would have serious doubts about letting them attend a US university in this climate.

      1. Hi Doc. As someone who’s been following those movies and the reaction to them, no ones saying if you don’t like the film then you’re a racist, at least nobody sane is saying that. But just like with Ghostbusters and The Force Awakens before it, there’s a significant group of people who DO hate that these movies are trending towards a more diverse cast and that it’s not predominantly about mostly ‘white guys’ getting to do all the cool stuff. There’s been considerable review bombing, petitions to get the film struck from cannon (ffs!) and people putting together their own cuts of the movie that removes all the female characters.

        Also while Johnson is getting a lot of abuse as the director of the film, John Boyega’s been harassed online since the first movie came out. Daisy Ridley was hounded of of social media about a year or so ago. And only recently Kelly Marie Tran (the first high profile Asian character) was targeted by the same bunch of a#holes and she had to abandon social media too because of all the racist abuse she was getting.

        That’s the two main young women of these movies harassed off social media by these people who are made up of general as$holes, misogynists, racists, neo nazi’s and trolls.

        Normal people have normal valid reasons for disliking these movies but these IS a considerable racist/misogynist element involved in the fandom that has resulted in people becoming defensive in their criticisms of the movie because they feel (like the guy above) that they’re going to be attacked.

        In my experience, nobody is calling people who just dislike the movie racist or sexist, but saying how you you can’t air your views because you’ll be called racist etc has become it’s own kind of defensive attack on the movie in some cases.

        Anyway, that’s my two cents for what it’s worth.

        1. Thanks for that context JD, I obviously have not been “following” these events. Twitter is a safe haven for the armpit of the world to air its views. The only way to survive there if you’re anyone with a large social visibility is to ignore your mentions entirely. For everyone else, it’s open season to be just as nasty as you want to be in the cozy comfort of internet anonymity. Says a lot about us humans doesn’t it?

        2. In the case of the Ghostbusters though, I really blame the marketing of the movie. They decided to sell the movie by saying, Hey look, we’ve got this fantastic new reimagining/revival/sequel/whocares of your favourite childhood movie franchise..GHOSTBUSTERS are back..(yaay)…but wait, there’s more..This time they’re all WOMEN!!! (yaay?)

          I mean I didn’t complain, but I didn’t watch the movie either because they gave me no reason to. And I can imagine that people who love Ghostbusters would have issues with what amounts to a stunt. And I think in their defense of the movie they purposely decided to ignore that legitimate annoyance by focusing on the trolls, racists, and misogynists as the ones protesting.

          Social media is a double edged sword for public figures/corporations. It’s amplified, but then they had the same issues with the traditional media including the paparazzi culture too for a while (before some decided to use that to their benefit) So while trolls are bad and can be quite harmful, I think their impact is overstated. Basically, go back to the old internet maxim. Don’t feed the trolls!

  2. Not a Star Wars fans. I’ve watched all the movies. Some a couple of times. But I think too much is made of them. The best thing about them, for me, is that they are about SPACE and include fantasy elements which means you can show anything. But the plot lines are quite basic storytelling, no?

    I think I did really like Empire Strikes back, though I can’t remember why. Plus Rogue One was very good too. Again, no idea why. Don’t remember the details like you nerds do 😛

    Also, since we’re dissing movies (or I am) I thought Black Panther was like an 80s Hindi movie.

  3. Arsenal article ideas..More like proto-ideas.

    1. Something like an injury tracker/comparison from past seasons of type and timing of injuries and recovery.

    2. Contract tracker. We seem to have had a lot of players sign fresh contracts in the past few months. What does this say about the type of team that Arsenal are trying to build?

    3. Do you think we’ll miss Oliver Giroud when we come up against teams who set up in a low block with big CBs? Or are Auba and Laca (+Perez, Nketiah and Welbz(?)) going to be enough to break down the opposition.

  4. Tim, thank you for crowdsourcing ideas. Reason #257 to love this blog.

    If I may suggest a couple of things that you didn’t. For me, the biggest points of intrigue are (1) how we line up against City on opening day, predictions/projections/reasons why we play A instead of B. (2) What our best lineup is once everyone is back, ditto.

    I wonder where/how you/the community see Xhaka playing. And how he plays. Can Auba/Laca play in the same XI? Should they? Is it time to breakup Ramxhakle (hat tip to the genius who coined that mashup).

    Would be fun to see if we read Emery right, or if he surprises us. I think he probably will with someone like Smith-Rowe in the squad. I watched the preseason vids again. His ball intelligence and movement are exceptional for his age. He can fetch and carry, he can pass, he can cross, he can shoot, and he’s got a good physique on him already. Not to hype him, mind.

  5. 3) How does Arsenal get goals for both Auba and Laca?
    Not going to be a problem. The understanding (and camaraderie) of the two has been both impressive and inspiring to see. Barring injury I’ll predict one (Auba) with 25 goals, the other (Laca) with 20. The creativity behind them in Ozil, Mkhi, and Ramsey is genuine talent. Not a matter of ‘how to get them shots’ IMO. But more that the creative guys now don’t have to carry that load individually. More will come– more easily.

    5) Errors: how many errors did Arsenal concede over the last few seasons…
    Yikes. How to quantify more than the ‘goals from errors’ from Opta or Squawka et al?
    There can be no argument that Arsenal’s defenders (primarily Mustafi) made far more ‘amateur decisions leading to goals’ than ‘errors’. Can’t count how many bad bounces and deflections led directly/indirectly to a ball-in-the-net. We were punished on an inordinate percentage of bad decisions and unlucky bounces in 2017-18. Not certain there can be any method of factoring in low-footballing-IQ.

    jw1

  6. *** SPOILER WARNING ***

    The sacred texts were saved by Rey, you can see her closing a drawer with them on her ship later on. Perhaps that’s why Yoda summoned the lightning to destroy the tree, because he knew the texts weren’t actually there.

  7. In analyzing the defense, please include the fullbacks. Bellerin has gotten stick for “stagnating” under Wenger, and, of course, did not make the Spain WC team. Move-to-Barcelona talk also seems to have died down. What’s up with him, and what specifically does he need to do better–with Emery’s help, of course?

    Similarly with Monreal, whom I think played pretty well last year. Yet he doesn’t get much love in the press and some commentators call out LB as an Arsenal weakness. I’m not a fan of Kolasinac, except as a backup, but Monreal, in my view, seems good enough to help us get to the CL over the next year or two. Waddya think?

    PS. It’s been a while since I posted but I remain a huge fan of the site. Looking forward to your insights here and at The Arsenal Review.

    1. In Monreal, as with Sagna before him, I think we may have conflated consistency + being better than the other option(s) with actually being stellar. And “over the next year or two” massively disregards his age. He’s firmly in the rapid-decline bracket now.

      1. (and to be clear, I’m not echoing Alan Davies, who is militant about his own perception of Monreal as a liability – and who has grown increasingly dickish the worse Arsenal have gotten, sadly). I was personally fine with Monreal but I started to scrutinize him a lot more after our 6-3 loss at the Etihad way back in late 2013. For a left-back he seemed to get sucked into the center an awful lot, always giving City an option on the right.

    2. “Similarly with Monreal, whom I think played pretty well last year. Yet he doesn’t get much love in the press and some commentators call out LB as an Arsenal weakness. I’m not a fan of Kolasinac, except as a backup, but Monreal, in my view, seems good enough to help us get to the CL over the next year or two.”
      Monreal is better than Kolasinac, but the reason why the leftback position is deemed a relative weakness is because Monreal is an aging player with average pace. Also, he has struggled to stop dangerous crosses, that’s why there was one season where had to compete with Gibbs for a starting spot. Arsenal would be more solid defensively with a leftback like Atletico’s Lucas Hernandez.

  8. Ideas (your site, your choice to use ‘em it junk them):

    Number of goals allowed when defensive form not maintained. (Someone would need to review last year to get a baseline — painful exercise.)

    +/- ratings (like hockey) for players and formations. Home and away. (This will highlight, for example relative increases in a player’s contribution, instead of just defensive or offensive stats)

    Changes in non-injury required rotation. Is it based on game-specific matchups or purely a matter of keeping people fresh or competitive?

    Goalie distribution stats.

    Effectiveness of playing from the back compared to last year.

    Number of times dispossessed by the other team in our 1/2 or 1/3 vs the reverse.

    Obviously, you can’t do everything, but goalie stats beyond saves seems import compared to last year and among the goalies.

    Love the site and thank you for the hard work done behind the scenes!

  9. I actually loved the Last Jedi. I saw it with a friend of mine who is into the whole internet fan scene and he was telling me all these objections that people had to the movie that I, a casual Star Wars viewer, never even noticed. The Leia thing did strike me as odd but it didn’t bother me one bit considering all the other crazy, unrealistic things that regularly happen in Star Wars movies. My main complaint about the whole thing is really just why they are pumping out so many movies. SW was a special, beloved movie series because fans could re-watch it for 20 years. Now there are about 20 movies in the last 10 years. I can’t keep up and I will soon lose interest. I already can’t be bothered to watch Solo.

    I really like the data array that you’ve outlined there and will look forward to your season preview.

    1. I’ve good news Doc!

      They’ve actually put a lot of the future movies on hold while they try to decide the best way to go about things.

      1. That is a relief. I think I need at least two years to be properly excited for the next Star Wars flick. I haven’t even re-watched any of the new ones starting with Force Awakens!

  10. So, Tim: D&D yesterday. Star Wars today. Making my days! You rock, man. What’s next? If future articles mention BMX, ColecoVision, Arnold Schwarzenegger, GI Joe, Sony Walkman, Ocean Pacific, The A-Team, caring about Coke vs. Pepsi (Coke, obviously), playing in the woods and finding a p*rn stash, drunk dads, offensive jokes, beaches that smell of cigarettes and suntan lotion, Vuarnet, posters of red Italian sportscars, my friend’s hot older sister, hearing about a martial arts move that could kill someone like instantly, sucking at sports, angry teachers, no seatbelts, The Ramones, Chicago Bulls, thirteen channels on the TV (six of which actually work), The Cosby Show, Commodore 64, The Simpsons on the Tracey Ullman Show, recipes made with canned soup, MTV, learning to shred on an old family hand-me-down Fender tube amp but dreaming of buying some sh*tty solid state number like Crate, and dressing up as a ‘hobo’ for Halloween, you will have hit on my entire 1980s memory profile.

    As for the preview material, that all sounds fantastic! I must say that after some initial optimism (so much change! I want all the change!), my expectations for this coming season have gradually lowered. I think I now see this season as an adjustment period, rebuild (boy oh boy that defense needs a lot of work), etc. I mean, old habits Die Hard, right? I guess I knew that before, but it’s driving my inner narrative now, whereas a month ago I was all Happy Days. It’s occurring to me lately that this Arsenal isn’t an overnight fix, though of course I’m hoping that this season our Gunners are more Top Gun than Naked Gun, more SMEG’s Excellent Adventure than Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Auba will be our Lethal Weapon, and Lacazette is a real Predator (though he, Auba, and Mkhi may be Trading Places instead of playing The Three Amigos). But will Torreira be our Karate Kid? I hope so. Will Elneny prove to be a Jewel of the Nile? Will Sokratis make a Splash? He might need to, given that playing Young Guns at center-back is a Risky Business (I wouldn’t trust a back line consisting of Three Men and a Baby, would you?). Perhaps in another 48 Hrs., when the players Fly to Dublin (in an Airplane!) to face The Blue Lagoon, we’ll get a better idea of Emery’s WarGames (I’m hoping for a win in E.T.).

    As for our opening game, seeing as many of City’s players are still on Vacation, we may be able to draw First Blood and then, perhaps, go on a Cannonball Run, though I’d be surprised if our Reds were in the Hunt by October. Yes, realistically, I’m waiting until next season to think Big (indeed, I do see a Red Dawn, particularly if we’re not Scrooged in next summer’s window), even if sport is a Field of Dreams. I just hope that if we’re The Outsiders from the top four this season, people don’t go Overboard. We Goonies can be a fickle bunch, but I’ve taken a Shining to Emery.

    Ok, Back to the Future.

    [I am NOT apologizing for any of this… Ok, for much of this.]

    3. Superb work, sir. Frame that.

      Hopefully, there’s a happy ending for gunners 🙂

  11. Oh man, that’s a touchy spam filter! I think I just got modded for saying ‘n*ked’. Also, I’ve come to realize in the last couple of weeks that your site doesn’t like s*cialism! Haha! Typical American. JK. JK.

    While my comment sits in purg*tory (can’t be too careful!), what’s this I’m hearing about Ramsey and Dembele doing a switch-a-roo? Would be lovely, if true. I think we need a dribbler more than we need a central midfielder right now, but hey, this rumor sounds like nonsense, no?

  12. Star Trek >>>> Star Wars.

    Energy swords wielded by wizards of a religious order? Thanks, but no thanks.

    Re: the topics. The topic of Ozil’s defense and work rate is starting to bore me. Not really keen on any comparisons between Cech and Leno; Leno is clearly the heir to the throne. I would enjoy reading a comparison of defensive set-ups and statistics as well as chances created. I’m thinking Auba and Laca will share time, so it’d be curious what the goal expectations might be for each under a time-share scenario. I’m curious too about our crossing, how many crosses last year and if we’ll really curtail that this year given that Auba and Laca are not your traditional centre forwards a la Giroud.

    1. “You think I’m gonna walk out with a laser sword and take down the whole First Order?”

  13. I think Jar Jar Binks has been the single worst thing to ever happen to me in a movie theater.

    If there had been a version of the Premier League with a version of today’s teams in a time long ago, in a galaxy far, far away surely Jar Jar would have been a Spurs fan. Vader? Any Mourinho team surely. R2D2? A true Gooner if there ever was.

      1. Wenger=Obe Wan, only Alec Guinness had that kind of gravitas. Or Yoda? Definitely a bit of Wenger in the little Jedi guru-ji

        1. Something appeals to me about Wenger as a polyglot protocol robot 😀

          Yoda is a great shout as well, but if the training regime he put Luke through in Empire Strikes back is any indication, Yoda is more hands-on with his training methods than we may have suspected. Although his undying faith in Luke’s potential does strike the right chord…

    2. With you 100% on Jar Jar. An egregious error in an already embarrassingly bad film. I thought I crossed into an alternate reality in which a small child had sabotaged the enterprise. But, in fact, it was reality. Traumatizing. Honestly, I’m never letting it go. You’ve had over fifteen years of A New Hope, etc., percolating in your imagination, growing in legendary status the longer it sets into nostalgia, and then you’re faced with the abomination that is Jar Jar f*ck*ng Binks. When was the last time I was that disappointed? Ugh. Still irks after twenty years, obviously.

      Star Wars PL… Mourinho’s got to be Emperor Palpatine. I don’t see Wenger as Obi Wan, who always seemed anesthetized or dour to me. C3PO’s not a bad shout, because Wenger also had a habit of swinging out both his arms when flummoxed, but Wenger has none of the robot’s literalism. Maybe Yoda. I’m overthinking this.

      Also, just want to say that Mark Hamill has never been a good actor, but somehow it was more forgivable in the late ’70’s, early ’80’s, and when you’re a kid, obviously. Nowadays, when I watch that opening sequence of A New Hope, and he kicks that rock to show his frustration, I can’t help but laugh.

      1. “I was going to go in to Tashi station to pick up some power converters!” (stares off at the sunset)

        I don’t think Jar Jar is a whole club or a whole fan base. He’s Mike Dean.

          2. Thanks for that, I cannot unhear or unsee this. And I will probably hum it in my sleep. I hope you are please with yourself.

      2. Hamill is great at Hamming it up..

        His voice acting as the Joker in the animated Batman series was excellent. And he also appeared as a joker-type character on the Arrow TV series and was good fun.

  14. “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose” – Yoda/Wenger.

  15. Bun bury I stay, your PTSD resonates with me and I feel for you. A great contemporary of Lucas’s also made some classic but altogether different films in the same 1970s era. In a deeply flawed masterpiece (OK, I get that is probably an oxymoron), a corpulent Marlon Brando says all that is to be said about the abomination that is Jar Jar Binks: “the horror, the horror!”

  16. Leia floating in space – people complaining about logic in a movie about space wizards

    Snoke – You know what was a common complaint in marvel movies up until recently? That the bad guy is a big CGI thing that is just there to be a bad guy. Kylo says NO ME and (lightsaber noise). This was brilliant imo.

    Rey being a nobody – That’s the point of the force? That you don’t have to be a Skywalker or a Kenobi to channel it for good?

    Gravity bombs were stupid

    The lady commander not telling anyone the plan was also stupid and purely because the audience wasn’t supposed to know the plan.

    1. I think the Holdo (the lady commander) not telling Poe the whole plan is totally understandable.

      SPOILERS……

      Poe’s just been guilty of ignoring Leia’s orders and getting lots of people killed because he only cared about what HE wanted to do and didn’t care about impact his actions would have on everyone else. Leia is rightly upset, points out the people who’ve lost their lives because of him, and denotes him.

      Holdo is new on the scene, doesn’t know everyone personally, but IS aware that Poe’s recently been demoted for ignoring orders so she’s rightly wary and doesn’t completely trust him. She tells him to follow orders and do his job.

      He’s upset, goes rogue and starts a mutiny.

      To get ‘real world’ for a minute, commanders keep back information from their soldiers all the time, it’s normal, and in this case Holdo’s not familiar with your troops, the enemy seems to be able to track them and she thinks there might be a mole. It’s reasonable she doesn’t fully trust him because he’s just recently shown he can’t be trusted.

      After his mutiny and being tasered by Leia and having things explained to him, by the final battle he’s learned to trust his commanding officers, follow orders, and not just think about what HE thinks is the best course of action.

      I think what Johnson did was pretty interesting. He had a lesson he wanted Poe to learn and by introducing someone like Holdo, who we know nothing about, he let’s the audience pick a side between the hot headed hero who doesn’t play by the rules, and his new commanding officer. Films always expect and encourage us to side with the hot head who doesn’t play by the rules against the ‘suit’ but Johnson points out, not just the need to trust your commanders and follow orders, but the unviability of soldiers who don’t.

      ‘Story wise’, one of the main reasons she doesn’t tell him the plan is because trusting his commanders is THE lesson he has to learn in the film. If she tells him the plan it robs Poe of his story arc.

      I know films encourage this kind of faith in all our ‘heroes’ but I think it is interesting how many people think Poe was completely justified in starting a mutiny based no evidence and hurt feelings.

      I’m with Holdo all the way on this one 🙂

  17. The ousmane dembele rumour is starting to heat up!! If we sign that guy, heaven knows I’m buying all 3 arsenal kits.. I’ll be wearing them to church on sundays until the season ends😂😂

  18. Something that is bugging me recently is in relation to Amortization FC. So I would be curious if I could read some analysis on the evolution of our player costs. Not from a cash-flow perspective, but from profit-and-loss statement one.

    We know that the transfer fee per se is not that important for the clubs, it matters only in the context of the contract length. So when a new signing is made, that layer will cost the club every year an amount determined by the formula:
    (transfer fee+signing bonus+image rights+agent fees)/(duration of contract)+(annual salary+bonuses)

    And I wonder how did our costs evolve in the last couple of years. We signed expensive players (Laca, Auba) whos costs we will carry in the next few years. Our salary brackets have increased almost double — there were times where the base group were earning ~100k per week, with Sanchez and Özil leading with 150k. Now most of the regular starters earn more than that, our leading players get 200k, and Mesut leads the pack with 350k.

    So I am curious how the overall picture developed, especially after the recent resigning spree.

        1. He used to blog but now he just tweets dreadfully boring accounting stuff that some football fans find fascinating for some reason:

          @swissramble

  19. What would be interesting for me to know this season is how much our pressing game affects players in terms of fatigue and injuries. We have seen it with Liverpool and Spuds in past seasons where their intense counter pressing game sees them suffer in the latter stages of the season. While Emery may not employ an aggressive counter press /gegen press will be interesting to see how the players hold up.

  20. They’re really laying into you on (the unfortunately named) Positively Arsenal.
    What’s wrong with those sad fcuks.

    1. Umm.. You’re always b****ing about other blogs here for really no reason. Like I don’t care, but this is just funny.

    1. Enjoyed that piece a great deal, in part because it jives with what I’ve seen on campuses (particularly in the last decade), and also because almost every sentence was aware of its history, including its recent one.

    2. Reminded me a bit of an argument that Walter Benn Michaels makes in “Against Diversity,” in which he suggests that diversity-as-shibboleth is actually preventing the ostensible aims of diversity, just as it reinforces (because it hides) class / income inequality.

    3. Reads like more semantics over words used to describe societal injustices – as if the material conditions those terms describe can be impacted by adjusting their terminology.

      Shame we’re not starting that discussion again.

      1. Agree with that. Unfortunately, too many people believe that changing language changes reality, completely ignoring the mediating agent called a human being. This is why (to draw from the piece) so many white, upper middle class university students feel comforted (and ironically reinforce their ‘privilege’) when they rage against ‘privilege’ or vociferously champion ‘social justice’. Again, unfortunately, linguistic or semantic ‘activism’ is increasingly perceived as actual activism or change, which is a handy justification for doing nothing materially.

      2. It’s not that terminology changes the reality. But it defines ‘problems’ and thus affects the action people take to ‘solve’ problems. (Thereby changing reality?)

        This happens with brainstorming sessions in any project, for example.

  22. Shard
    The ‘b*****ing’ started on Positively and is continuing.
    My reason for bringing it up was because I was complimentary (the other day) about other blogs and their attitude to 7am, and just to prove me a liar that Eduardo bloke make a prat of himself which is being continued by Pedantic George & Finsbury.
    I don’t think it’s unreasonable to bring it to Tim’s attention, he’s one of the good guys of Arsenal blogging.

    1. I appreciate it. They seem to have a love of talking shit about me behind my back.

      Here’s what I wrote in reply:

      Hey folks, thanks for commenting about my blog over here. I love all the positivity flowing over here at positively Arsenal.

      It was 2008 when I said “sell Rosicky”. Man that was (looks at year) 10 years ago. If you remember at the time he had been out with several injuries and also had that blow up where he slagged off several Arsenal players in the press and then recanted with an apology non-apology. As an interesting side note, 2008 was when I first started writing. I was a lot less measured about my words and certainly understood a lot less about how the football business (especially the press, who whipped the Rosicky thing into a fury) works.

      But yes, I was wrong to say “sell Rosicky” because if we had, I wouldn’t have had one of my favorite ever moments as an Arsenal fan: when his hair caught the light, and it looked like he caught fire, right before scoring the only goal to beat Tottenham. I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong and if you read my writing, instead of just being angry with me on this forum, you’ll find that I often apologize for saying stupid things that I regret. I also learn from my mistakes. Maybe that makes me a “prick”, I don’t know, it’s just how my personality works.

      As for slagging off this blog, I think the only thing I’ve ever said is that it’s very strange that the so-called “positive” Gooners are so filled with hate toward their fellow Gooners that they literally can never forgive them (even 10 years later) for any criticism of the team. I said the same thing at the same time about the negative blogs and sure enough, they all hate me too!

      It was really weird to see blogs go up which seemed dedicated to just slagging off other Gooners. Almost like a High School slam book.

      I feel like most people should be given a chance to talk about their ideas in a measured way. Not to talk about the person, but the ideas. That’s what I try to do with my blog and why I have a strict spam filter.

      One of my main philosophies is that the thing that’s least positive in life is sitting around talking shit about people behind their backs. Every encounter I have with George and this blog is exactly that. He does it here, on Twitter, and apparently his people do it on my blog and here.

      Anyway, looking forward to a great season with the Arsenal. They were the second best home team last year and hopefully they can improve their away form (I see you have an article here saying the same). Also hoping I can take my daughter to see her first match this season. Good luck with everything and I hope to see you at the Grove.

      -Tim

        1. I don’t get it. I really don’t think i talk shit about other bloggers (but will gladly correct myself if you catch me) and almost never talk shit about the person writing a comment on my blog. Why are they still talking about me over there??? YOU LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE.

          1. You’ve got some support over there Tim; the gloriously named Self Righteous.

      4. Gossip is the most common and most poisonous of human past-times. It can really hurt to find out that people are saying bad things behind your back and I think we’ve all had our share of brutal realizations of what people really think of us. I took inspiration on this front from none other than Tom Brady during the deflategate saga when pretty much everyone was on him about cheating, etc. Whether he did or not is not the point, the point is that he handled even very personal accusations from former teammates with a consummate grace that I admired thoroughly. He cited “The Four Agreements” as his inspiration, a book of ancient Toltec wisdom that I promptly read. It’s a little trippy but it basically boils down universally good human behavior to four rules that are simple to comprehend but incredibly difficult to keep consistently: 1. Always be impeccable with your word 2. Take nothing personally 3. Don’t make any assumptions 4. Always do your best. The book is by Miguel Ruiz and it could change anyone’s life. It did mine.

        1. Personally, gossip has never bothered me. Like I’m not saying I’m a saint or anything. I just never saw anything to worry about. People are going to say what they want to say. Reach out if it’s something worth doing, but otherwise move on. Why get caught up in it.

          Being on twitter I learnt that there’s something called ‘sub-tweeting-, which is where you reference a person on Twitter without adding them in the chain, and I’m like, dude I’m not going to involve the person directly in every statement or every discussion I have about them. It’s unnatural. Which I suppose is why I don’t worry about gossip. It’s normal human behaviour to discuss someone without the burden of having to worry about their feelings. Being mean spirited is a different thing, but that shows through either as gossip behind their back, or as bullying, in person.

          1. It sounds like you don’t take it personally, which is great. Nobody is ever going to convince me that gossip is OK though. To be clear, gossiping doesn’t mean talking about someone; it means talking about someone behind their back, usually involving personal/private information if not outright slander or criticism. That is never anything but destructive to someone, somewhere, usually more than one person.

          2. Doc.. I wasn’t thinking of gossip in those terms. I think some amount of criticism is fair if you’re putting yourself out in the public. But yes, I see what you mean and you are quite correct.

      5. Can’t find the post on Positively, but love your reply Tim. You’re engaging with the backwoods of Arsenal fandom over there.

        Saw on twitter that Mr. “28 until he’s 29” himself thinks Arsenal shouldn’t bother chasing Dembele because the player wouldn’t improve us. Reminds us that understanding football is not a required to be a vocal, opinionated fan.

          2. He’s one of the Positively writers. In fact he wrote the current article (a few weeks back). They seem to have run out of topics & the commenters are now just randomly making posts, one of which was the 7am criticism.

    2. No that’s fair enough. I was being a little tongue in cheek. But just like you say PA started the b****ing, they will say they are only reacting to the negativity. I don’t mind them, and I don’t mind you bringing it up. But I was struck by the irony of your last line. Sorry.

      And you know, maybe it’s just what’s happening with me in the real world, but I’m finding that this sort of stuff bothers me less and even amuses me. So take my comment in that context.

      1. Sure. No problems. Tim has had his say also. I didn’t realise it went that deep.

  23. Your blog is the most read arsenal blog not just cos you analyse what arsenal is about but there’s an intellectual touch on every post here.. I’m a Nigerian..about leaving for a degree in informatics after 5 years of nursing as a science.. I find it very educating reading your posts! I just checked the positively arsenal page and the last time they had something reasonable was way back! This blog is open to everybody and even if everyone here is still on a journey to perfection, I’d take 7am above any other insulting side.. no human is perfect Tim.. I love this place, always have and always will..except it becomes a sp*ds blog😁😁.. for the record, we all support a club and that’s what this is all about.. Thank you for being imperfect.. next post please!

  24. “This film is an intentional destruction of almost everything that came before it.”
    That’s the problem with The Last Jedi. That movie is to the Star Wars saga what Mars Attacks was to Independence Day: a parody! If they wanted to make a parody, it should have been a separate movie and not something integrated into the Star Wars saga.

    1. I totally see your point. I’ve seen this movie a few times now and it’s not going to go down as a classic but i won’t mind watching it again. You know, from my perspective the Force Awakens was also highly problematic. I felt like the movie was basically a meme of A New Hope. I think I wrote something like that here. It has almost every scene from the original and that actually bothered me. I mean, do we need bigger and badder starships in every episode? That’s what I loved about Rogue One and Solo, they focused on the people, the story between the people. I’d be super happy with a Star Wars movie set well outside the huge conflict between good and evil. One just about the people.

      1. Lucas tried to give us one about kingdoms, parliamentary politics and the Jedi UN police force and we hated it.

        1. Because it was s$%t. Those elements can and should make a great Star Wars movie one day.

      2. “You know, from my perspective the Force Awakens was also highly problematic. I felt like the movie was basically a meme of A New Hope. ”
        The Force Awakens was OK, trying to keep the Lucas spirit while moving forward (a bit like Emery trying to play the Arsenal way while improving on Wenger’s tactics). But you make a good point: there’s a real crisis of creativity in Hollywood, with directors struggling to find new ideas and relying instead on old recipes. A couple of years ago, there was an article (maybe in the Guardian, I’m not sure) describing how directors watched movies to pick up ideas for their own movie. It could be a fight scene, a narrative, a set, or some special effects. That’s why viewers have now this impression that they have already watched the scene of a new movie somewhere.

        1. The Force Awakens really was a meme of A New Hope wasn’t it? It was like watching a movie based on a popular theme-park ride.

          Nothing will ever typify Hollywood’s creative crisis better than JJ Abrams getting signed on to reboot both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises. Gareth Edwards deserves huge credit for the way he handled Rogue One.

          The opening scene, from the Empire’s spaceship flying through Saturn’s rings to the confrontation with Mads Mikkelson, is more iconic and memorable than anything that happens in Force Awakens.

  25. A singer/song writer once said to me (in the context of the work):
    “The day that somebody somewhere doesn’t slag a song of ours is the day I’ll quit this business. If someone doesn’t hate my s%&t and every one’s drinking the Kool-aid, then what attitude, what perspective do I have, do we have as a band?”

    Rock on Tim, rock on.

  26. I’m a little confused. I saw on Twitter something about Darren Burgess leaving Arsenal to rejoin some side in the AFL in Australia. And rumours that Gazidis is on his way to Milan seem to be getting louder as well.

    1. Burgess is being hired as a consultant for a new expansion club to the Australian League. A knowledgeable Australian explained the situation at Arseblog News, basically it’s a PR stunt, getting a name behind their bid.

      1. That’s a relief. I really just want a stable team working with the players, and for them to see out the project. It’s why Gazidis’ leaving is so strange to me, but maybe he feels his work is done here. Kind of like the watchmaker God of the deists.

    2. Here’s the orinal comment by Kevin Moody:
      Just a little perspective from here in Aus. The A-League will expand by two teams in the 2019/20 season. There are currently 10 bids under consideration, Southern Expansion being one of them. Their bid is one of the most high profile, but is causing some controversy regarding their location conflicting with another club (Sydney FC – who Arsenal played in Sydney last pre-season). So it is far from certain that this licence will even be granted, and with final submissions due from each bid on August 31, there is a distinct whiff of PR stunt with this announcement.

      And just a point in reply to the first comment here today, Port Adelaide are an AFL team (Aussie Rules) so any potential conflict of interest is more to do with rival football codes than teams.

      1. Hey homie. I trashed that copy-paste of Arseblog’s content. Just link over next time.

        Much love!

        1. Yeah, I was fiddling with my phone which didn’t go too well. No problem, will do.

  27. HT against Chelsea (with the usual caveat that I fully understand that no solid conclusions can be reached about the future of the team based on a pre-season game!):

    Ramsey picks up an injury in warm-up. We could have used him in midfield, and therein lies the same old refrain when it comes to Ramsey. A player of exceptional quality who misses a large chunk of every season. His replacement, Smith Rowe, did ok (the highlight being a delicious back heel to set up the Kolasinac chance), but generally he slowed the play down, and lost his marker for their goal. Guendouzi looking great again; even if he did have one bad giveaway, he was always making himself available, he was metronomic, physical, and never hid once. The senior attacking players, on the other hand, have been pretty anonymous, and Mkhitaryan especially has been average.

    I will say that, to my surprise, Sokratis looked fantastic, though the rest of our defense were all over the place in the first 20 minutes. Indeed, we really grew into the game in the last 15-20 minutes of the half, and but for some wasteful finishing, we’d be level or even ahead…though Chelsea should also have gone up by 2 or 3 but for Petr Cech.

  28. What Bun said 👆🏽

    I Liked….

    Our pressing and work off the ball — even Ozil was putting in a shift

    Guendouzi — showed in a few short weeks has shown how average Elneny is. A surprisingly high %age of his passing is progressive and forward, even under pressure

    Defence — apart from the goal and early pressure, looked resolute

    Cech — will surely start against City

    Didnt like..

    Caveats Bun mentioned apply, but Ozil and Laca apart, the big boys in forward positions had an off-day

    Miki was especially poor.

    Bellerin still cant cross a ball after all these years (and his defending wasn’t great). Chambers looked more secure at RB. Emery needs to drop players who have maybe come to take their places for granted

    We still don’t take especially good corners and set-pieces

    Iwobi gets into good positions but still isnt clinical

    1. Pretty much agree with all that.

      Overreaction alert: Guendouzi might just end up being young Cesc level good (ok, not quite, but you get the picture). He’s got to be ahead of Elneny in the pecking order now (and interesting that, after all the hype last season about AMN, Guendouzi has come in and seemingly immediately jumped ahead of him in the queue), and might just push himself ahead of Xhaka by mid-season, if the Swiss doesn’t watch out. Pretty much every time we beat their press and got ourselves into good positions in the final third, it was down to MG showing composure on the ball and hitting a perfect line breaking pass or long switch. The kid has lots of improving to do, of course, especially without the ball, but he’s only 19 and is coming from the French 2nd division. His ceiling looks ridiculously high.

      PS Just once I’d love to see Laca and Auba tried in a proper front two…

      1. He can see a forward pass — and usually hits it — through a thicket of players. That is Cescy stuff. I think your read of his position in the pecking order is spot on.

  29. @FT: Hilarious. Lacazette equalizes with virtually the last kick of the game, and then Cech saves a penalty in the shootout! Haha. But generally, I have to say it was a fairly frustrating match to watch from an Arsenal (attacking) point of view. Really wasteful in front of goal, and we had several good opportunities. Chelsea caused us very few problems in the second half. The defense played the offside trap almost perfectly (one offside was given when replays showed that Bellerin had played the attacker onside). Again, really enjoyed Sokratis’ game today. He’s tough and loves to get up close and in the faces of the opposition. Mustafi had a better 2nd half. I’m sure for City it will be Cech at GK, and Mustafi and Sokratis as the CB partnership.

    Guendouzi looks the real deal. What a player. Obviously, there are still a few little issues for him to work on, but he’s a special talent. I bet he’s in contention to start against City, which is something you would never have heard anyone say when he was purchased last month.

  30. Oh, and someone tell Bellerin to start eating meat again. Or cut his hair. Anything that might bring back the short-haired, carnivorous RB that so impressed two seasons ago.

  31. Young Matteo showing why people don’t trust Xhaka and Elneny. We look different class with a CM who can evade a press and still find a forward pass through the lines.

    This morning the story on the Arsenal website was “Mkhi: Aaron Ramsey is a symbol of the club”. And the same day Ramsey pulls out of the starting line-up with an injury. Well, Mkhi was not wrong.

  32. Hope everyone’s well. Caught up with the highlights of the Chelsea game, it loos like a timely reminder that there is a lot of work still to do to make us a solid defensive unit. I’m not so worried about that, these things take time. But expectations around the City game need to be managed – we still look like a raw side at times and surely that’ll continue for a while, and mistakes will happen, until the methods being coached in become more instinctive.

    Fullbacks look like an issue. Kolasinac is not firing so we need another good season from Monreal, which I hope is not too much to demand from him. Bellerin would be a major concern were it not for the fact we also have Lichtsteiner in that position, so I’m grateful for that piece of business. On current form I can honestly see Licht taking the starting slot.

    Midfield looked too open but with no Ramsey, Xhaka or Torreira, likely the starting 3. Guendouzi does indeed look like he can become the real deal, maybe with someone like Torreira alongside him or Xhaka the midfield will tighten up and start to really sing.

    And one more shout out for this blog and all the commentators – struggling to think of other online spaces where these wide-ranging, random and interesting conversations happen, some of them occupying tricky territory. Thanks to Tim for setting the tone (message to the other blog above a good example). Not as much of a curmudgeon as you think.

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