Players to watch after this January’s transfers
Higuain – Once set the record for goals scored in the Slowie A, 31 years old, out of shape, overperformed xG by 16 goals from 2015-2018, scored 6 goals in 15 matches for AC Milan this season after Juventus dumped him. If he catches on fire (figuratively) he could help Chelsea finish top four. Of course, they have to put out the fires in the dressing room caused by the current coach.
(sticking with Ivan Gazidis and AC Milan for a minute) Parades y Paqueta – Good players for sure and reinforcements were needed in the DM and forward roles, however, the real story is that AC Milan are under serious scrutiny for violating FFP. Unless they break even in 2021, they risk losing European qualifications. Parades and Paqueta represent a combined £70m investment from AC Milan’s new ownership group. Cost which is only marginally offset by dumping Higuain’s salary.
Batshuayi – Crystal Palace needed a target man, they got a Bat Man. His career stats suggest a player unlikely to score a ton of goals but I wonder if a partnership with Wilf Zaha might help him? Zaha loves to get into the box and just having someone to pass to in there would be cool.
Almiron – Signed from Atlanta to Newcastle, folks on the Guardian podcast asked “Almiron who”, so let me help out with who he is: 24 year old Paraguayan players, winner of the MLS cup in 2018, 12 goals and 11 assists last season, 4.1 shots per game, 2.3 key passes per game, 2.4 dribbles per game, and 2.1 fouls per game. Young, quick, and slippery, an excellent signing for Newcastle – needs to work on his finishing, shot selection, and shot positioning (averages 1.8 shots per game outside the 18). If he can do that, he could be the best signing of the year (2019).
Suarez – Arsenal from Barcelona. Played the equivalent of 35 matches over the last three seasons. People love to base his stats off what he did at Villareal in 2015/16 – where he was the 7th best player on a team that finished 4th but only scored 40 goals. Doesn’t have any history providing his teams with defense and his offensive output has been minimal. Famously dropped by Emery for the Europa League semi-final (both legs) and the final in his only appearance. Considered a “confidence player” so I will say nothing but nice things about him from here on out because I am so powerful I have an effect on this multi-millionaire sportsman’s psychology. He will be better than Almiron. For sure.
Balotelli – Free transfer to Marseille. 28 years old. In a few years, when he’s completely out of football, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer on a beach, people will wonder what ever became of Balotelli? Maybe this is all that Balotelli could ever become?
Tielemans – Signed for Leicester. Leicester’s record lately has been spotty and they have taken a chance on a player who is looking for fresh start.
Balerdi – 20 year old center back, signed by Borussia Dortmund at a time when there were literally no center backs in the world available for transfers. I know nothing about this kid but I would bet money that he turns out to be pretty decent. Borussia Dortmund have a way of doing that. Not sure what it is.
Mepham – 21 year old center back, signed for Bournemouth. Did you know that there were only three defenders signed for more than £10m this January? Just saying.
“Considered a “confidence player” so I will say nothing but nice things about him from here on out because I am so powerful I have an effect on this multi-millionaire sportsman’s psychology. He will be better than Almiron. For sure.”
Quoting you to you because this was a good one.
Almiron will be good because MLS will have exposed him to the physicality he can expect in the PL.
Balotelli makes me sad, just like Andy Carroll or Jay Emmanuel Thomas (now playing in Thailand, lol) who had all the skills and physical attributes to be great, but just not what it took between the ears.
Happens a lot more than we realize. I worry that there is some of this to Suarez. He was courted very young by Man City and then picked up by Barcelona. It’s fascinating that this player has been shuttled around to big clubs for such tiny amounts of money only to be essentially dropped at every club. Once again Arsenal digging around in the bargain bin trying to find some weird “mid-level” treasure. I wish him the best at the club.
I will follow the respective fortunes of Almiron and Suarez with great interest especially since they seem like similar types of players. It’s also a terrific proxy for a stats vs. scouting argument as Almiron is a stat stuffer apparently but from a vastly inferior league, whereas Suarez has been anonymous/inconsistent in what is arguably the world’s best top flight division, yet considered valuable enough that Barcelona haven’t entirely given up on him at the age of 25 and Arsenal want to sign him. So following the counterfactual ideal (philosophy majors, eat your heart out, this is my riposte to your teleology shenanigans), what would have become of Almiron at Barcelona and of Denis Suarez in the MLS? I don’t think it’s far fetched to suppose their productivity and respective career paths may have been broadly similar; one racking up stats in an inferior league while the other struggles to be noticed at arguably the greatest club on Earth. As I said, I will be following their respective fortunes with interest.
Suarez played in inferior leagues with crap teams and wasn’t really very good.
I don’t think there’s any question Almiron is better suited to the PL than Suarez.
He’s quicker , more direct and can run away from players with ball at his feet.
Can also take a challenge and not go down as easily as Suarez might.
Suarez maybe the better technician of the two if only just, but his lack of pace will be a problem for him.
This is a pointless comparison of course , since Arsenal made it clear they were only entertaining loan deals in January.
Most likely outcome: Suarez fails to make any meaningful impact and goes back to Barca at the end of the season.
Whatever minutes he gives us till then should easily justify the loan fee Arsenal are paying for his services.
“Suarez maybe the better technician of the two if only just, but his lack of pace will be a problem for him”.
Suarez? Lack of pace? 😳ffs, Tom. That is simply not true. He’s got a seriously good turn of pace on the dribble
“Can also take a challenge and not go down as easily as Suarez might”.
Go down as simply as Suarez… MIGHT? Might? He’s not played a minute in the PL, and you decide that he’ll be more inclined to dive than Almiron?
“No question that Almiron is better suited to the PL”, bused on those arguments? Lot of time for you, Tom, but your post is nonsense. Unwarranted negativity. At least let’s see Suarez play before deciding that he’s slow, lightweight rubbish.
Take a deep breath Claude .
Everything I said about Suarez was in context of a comparison with a player NCU just paid €24m for, a player I watched play more than a few times in MLS.
A “seriously good turn of pace on the dribble “ is a relative term that I choose to attribute to players who can complete a dribble and then run away from the defender. Nothing I’ve seen from Suarez suggests he’s that type of a dribbler but rather a trickster and a very good technician.
Also – and that’s by my own admission – while my English may be quite rudimentary , as is my education level, but going down more easily than other players doesn’t mean diving , and “ will” has a different meaning than “ might”.
Considering his relatively low wages Suarez can hardly fail.
Will he impress enough to justify the price tag Barca put on him after the loan ends? Who knows?
I have my doubts but I hope he’s a great hit.
These are the most unconvincing arguments I’ve seen you make. Many of us watched Almiron — youre not the only one. He had been linked to Arsenal, and I kind of hoped he’d be a summer addition. fab young player, but his attributes shouldn’t detract from Suarez’ in any way.
The Spaniard looks a good player, with touch of Tom Rosicky. Let’s see how he goes. I hope that he proves to be the better piece of business, and I hope, darn it, we sign him or someone like him. We lack his skillset in the team.
And hey, they last thing i’ll knock you on is language. The only things I can say in Polish are “thank you”, and “I love you”, which I can attribute to my 2 decades in London, otherwise known as greater Warsaw.
Those phrases, of course, have limited utility.
Tom, you seemed positive on Suarez yesterday, and now…
Ooooohhhh, I get it, you’re doing the Tim thing where you talk yourself into Suarez being an abject failure so that you might be pleasantly surprised if he exceeds “abject failure” standards by even the smallest degree!
#Expectations
Anyway, it’s hard to get overly fussed about a player we’ve invested so little in. My main supposition is that regardless of the fact he was dropped for a couple of Europa games (do we know why? carrying a knock?), this is Emery’s choice, not Sven’s. And clearly he knows what he’s getting and he’s fine with it.
The other thing I’m assuming is that — pace Claude — top four was NOT the club’s expectation for Emery this season, despite public noises to the contrary. If it were, I think we’d have invested a lot more this January than throwing pennies at a loan deal for a La Liga part-timer.
I think the club is looking at this season as a transition throwaway, with Emery charged with getting used to the club, the players, the league, and then using the summer to shape the team for a top four push next season.
Opinion!
“Ooooohhhh, I get it, you’re doing the Tim thing where you talk yourself into Suarez being an abject failure so that you might be pleasantly surprised if he exceeds “abject failure” standards by even the smallest degree!”
I set my standards for you very low, which is why I like you so much! I mean, I expect you to be a major asshole with a big vocabulary and when you’re just slightly an asshole, it’s like you’re almost a nice guy!
Did you ever finish reading that Teleology article you posted the other day?
No, I did not get to the END of that teleology article. 😀
BUNBURYIST
“#expectations “ is the name of the game.
For what Arsenal are paying him, Suarez literally can’t disappoint me and that’s why I said I was pumped about his loan.
It’s like buying a penny stock and not throwing a fit or getting down when it treads water.
Re the top four bit of your comment, it’s interesting to me that the main argument Arsenal fans had put forward for the club making top four before the start of the season was that Arsenal were a big club with a rich CL qualification history, and anything short of that would constitute failure on Emery’s part.
That, and also because the front office people said this was their goal.
As if they were expected to say anything else.
So just out of curiosity I did a little google search the other day of all top four predictions by BBC, ESPN and such (excluding fan predictions of course) and, lo and behold, no one had Arsenal in the top four.
No surprise there.
I did a google search just the other day on
I know it’s all about expectations. The thing I’m still staggered about, though, is how I expected Lichtsteiner not to be an old man, and then he played like an old man. How, Tom? How in the world did I get to a place in my life where I thought Lichtsteiner was a nice bit of business?
I’m questioning everything.
As an incurable romantic follower of Arsenal FC, I’m only concerned about Suarez from all the players listed.
He is either going to be Emery’s jewel or the rope used to hang him.
Tim Stillman has written something about the coach on the arseblog. Another writer I respect, GunnerDesi has written Unai off, while Imothyt has generally been generous with both criticism and praise, I have gauged the responses and I feel I now have the ammo, I need to make a conclusion.
We all have our familiar addictions which we indulge. Wenger loved French players and midfielders; Emery loves high energy grafters.
In D. Suarez, Emery has obliged his craving, a Spanish player, whom he knows and who has done a job for him in the past. Of all the players available in the world, he chose this man. So he is Emery’s man and his skill-set complements this current squad.
He will play on the right wing, while Iwobi plays on the left and Ramsey plays in the hole; or he may play in the hole when Mhkitaryan returns to the right, and he may be Ramsey’s successor, if it becomes apparent that he is tactically better than Ramsey, the contract for his purchase will be signed asap if he drops a Bennayoun-esque performance.
Thus my evaluation and judgment of the best Emery can offer begins now.
For Mustafi there’s Mavropanos, for Kolasinac there is Monreal, for Ramsey there is Õzil & Mhkitaryan, the only notable exception is Bellerin and I think Jenkinson, Maitland Niles and Lichsteiner will alternate between games to fill the gaps. Iwobi may even be benched by Suarez if necessary; but from now on, no more excuses.
If it’s a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 we have the personnel to execute Emery’s football fantasies with this transfer.
I mentioned Tim Stillman’s article because the rumblings from the ticket holding fans indicate that
the honeymoon for Emery is over.
We have a peculiar struggle for top 4, both Chelsea or Arsenal have the option of winning the Europa league to qualify for the Champions League, Manchester United does not have this option.
14 must win games are at stake. I only hope for Emery’s sake, he gets it right because he will soon feel the wrath of the fans. Already his constant substitution of Lacazette has been drawing boos, the alienation of Õzil is another point of contention. It will be in his best interest, injuries permitting for another winning run to occur, with a discernible pattern of play.
I opine that Iwobi is not very good at football. I further opine that Suarez will be more effective than Iwobi, which may not be saying much, given what I have opined about Iwobi.
7am Kickoff can be such a strange and wonderfully strange experience. Here I am, stringing and tuning for a GnR cover (usually a down a half-step, Eb) and I’m reading about Ethics, Teleology and Aristotle yesterday.
It was almost like I was there at Lyceum in a toga except surround by Marshall amps and Gibson guitars. Ok, not really, but it was still pretty cool.
I had completely forgotten about the existence of Mario Balotelli until this post which is odd because, odder still, I always had a a bit of soft spot for him, don’t ask me why. Maybe because that brief spark he had a few years ago, even with all the behavior issues, made him an exciting and interesting player to watch.
Suarez is a a bemusing one, don’t know what to make of it. Guess we’ll have to wait a few games before chanting at Emery, “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
Rock on, people and let’s at least put up a decent fight and finish for that 4th place trophy.
Almiron is very interesting. I would have expected someone slightly better than Newcastle to have taken a punt on him, but it’s still a good chance, and a good test for him there.
Balotelli. Yeah, this is about all he could achieve. The guy just didn’t have the right attitude. I still remember Raiola trying to big up his move to Arsenal and I was glad we passed.
Speaking of strikers we passed on. Higuain. I was never very convinced by him but then he tore it up at Napoli, and was quite good for Juventus. I thought his movement up front was good. He wasn’t just hanging on the shoulder and hoping for the ball to break to him. Anyway, good for him. Despite his lack of apparent fitness, he’s had a good career because his finishing is generally very good. Hope he fails at Chelsea.
But as an Arsenal fan, Denis Suarez is the one to focus on. I don’t know man. I just don’t get the point of him but I’m hoping he can ignite something in our usually boring offense, simply because Emery seems to trust him. I expect we’ll make his signing permanent what with losing Ramsey. Hope he shows he’s deserving of that.
I think we all have big questions about Denis. This signing suggests that Emery is as focused on pressing and recovering/countering in the opponents’ third as he is possessing the ball. Suarez (from my admittedly limited viewing of his ability) seems like a guy who will tackle, intercept and get after the ball. He has a lot of energy, if nothing else, and that work rate seems to be Emery’s yearning. And he seems like a little bit of a sh!thouser, willing to rough it up. In other words, the anti-Ozil. That’s not to say he doesn’t have skills – he can dribble and make a pass, and finishes better than Iwobi (damning with faint praise a bit), but we’re beginning to understand Emery’s style. Tough, very active, and willing to play at both ends. I don’t expect him to be a game changer, but I’m reserving judgment to see what he can do.
I’ll have to take your word for it. From what I’ve read Suarez isn’t much of a defender and doesn’t deal well with physicality. I remember being impressed by his skills in one game a few years ago and some of his highlights are cool.
Also, no idea of Emery’s style, apart from the fact that he seems to like to attack from wide, and he’s been calling Suarez a winger so I hope he’ll help there. (Suarez seems a bit like the Barca guy Everton had, I’m forgetting his name, Delfouneso or something)
Btw, the photo Arsenal put out with Emery and Suarez titled reunited was funny. They looked like father and son.
Huh.. Suarez has almost zero defensive stats so I’m not sure where this idea he’s some pressing player comes from. I will keep an eye on it, though. Thanks for the tip.
My impression about pressing/tracking back was probably not overstated, after further review. He is just more physical than I expected. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Emery tasks him with being more press-oriented. Kid seems to have an engine, and is strong enough to win balls.
Probably WAS overstated, I mean. sigh. Friday.
He is tiny. That doesn’t mean he can’t press or won’t press but i do wonder if the physicality of this League will eat him up and spit him out. I’m sure the club have looked at all available info.
You think 5’9″ is tiny? Wowz!
I for once happy that Arsenal did not buckle and give what the seller want in a transfer window. We were clear with the players and how we want them. You can question whether this helps Emery or not but the clarity helps to plan future.
Got some good 20-25 games from now till the end of season to asses squad. Clear out the lot, keep a small squad with youngsters making up the numbers and we will have the emeryball rolling out in the summer.
We have failed to cover the biggest news of all. Peter Crouch is now with Burnley! Wouldn’t it just be our luck that he score some awful header in our final game that costs us points and keeps us out of CL? You heard it here first. 🙂
I didn’t miss that deal which sends Vokes to Stoke for £7m and Burnley accepted that fee and 38yo Crouch as a ‘sweetener’ in the deal.
AC Milan did spend £70m on Paqueta (21yo AMF from Flamengo) and Piatek (23yo CF from Genoa). If you watched any Flamengo games, you would have seen the opposition targeting him like they do Guendouzi. Piatek is the 4th leading goal scorer in Serie A (13 goals) and he scored a brace in his first game for the club against Napoli, knocking them out of the Coppa Italia.
Leandro Paredes signed with PSG to replace the injured Verratti.
Ok so I just watched this video and I feel much better about Suarez. Whatever else he can do, he can certainly carry the ball and we desperately need that. He’s going to get kicked a lot though, hope he’s prepared and doesn’t just go into his shell.
First off he was an academy player at Man City so he won’t cry about the weather. Second, off he ‘s experienced with
I was surprised too when I watched a highlihgt video. He isn’t afraid to mix it up. He gets shoved, kicked, tripped etc. and he finds ways through. I was taken by his pace and dribbling skills. We have no one like him. He feels like a mashup of Ramsey and Santi. Dribbles through tight spots like the latter, but makes late runs like the former. (Though not nearly as good as either, I suspect) Much different than what I had read, which made me assume he was not very tough/physical.
He looks good enough to be a nailed on starter for us.
I’ll share this ahead of the meeting with Man City where the over-under is around 5 :https://i.imgur.com/IYocsCh.jpg
As ever interesting post Tim,
Are you/we saying then that essentially there weren’t any decent CBs/RBs to take on loan or permanent OR that if Mislintat wasn’t going he (or rest of team) would’ve identified one?
Basically we should stop bemoaning not adding/replacing quality to the actual defenders and simply saying ‘we identified and got someone who was available for somewhere on the pitch on a loan, who may help in the team at some point but if not – whatever’?
Arsenal didn’t sign a CB… “)
We have CBs on loan who get turned into DMs (Bielek and Chambers) rather than having their development progressed as CBs. They do look fine as DMs including Bielek with a some Torreira moves: https://twitter.com/AFCLoanWatchVid
Like what I see of our new #22…he will perform within our new system
I don’t get all the negativity about Denis Suarez. Reminds me of some of the early hot takes on Sokratis. Let’s see the guy play. Quite a bit about Emery that hasn’t convinced me yet, but I’m not going to ding him for getting a guy he wants, trusts and thinks can play in his system, when I haven’t seen him play a single minute in Arsenal colours. We moan when the target is too old, like Perisic. We moan when he’s the right age profile, like Suarez.
We don’t have ball carriers except Iwobi. Suarez, from the videos, looks a more assured finisher (although Im not saying that we should bench Iwobi and start him). He seems as well to have a good brain in the final third. He couldn’t get regular minutes at the best football club in the world with an overstocked midfield. How …. awful 🙄Even the great Vieira didn’t exactly set Milan on fire.
You can intricate it all you like (as Arsennal often do), but if you don’t have ball carriers you cant break lines of a determined defence. That’s smaller team in particular set up against us. And it’s how Russia beat Spain at the world cup.
Tell you who I HAVE seen play, unlike Denis Suarez. Mkhitaryan. And I’m not impressed. If Suarez does the business, I’d rather we sold Mhki while he still retains 30m GBP of transfer value, and outright buy the younger player. We were desperate to get something, anything, out of the Sanchez deal last Jan. His high salary has also had knock on effects on our transfer plans. Let’s admit that we got it wrong, and move on.
Mkhi is, at times (too many times), comically bad. I no longer laugh at United fans about Sanchez, and it displeases me when I lose things to laugh at United about.
And style-wise and in stature, the Arsenal player that Denis Suarez most resembles, to me, is Thomas Rosicky. If he brings a fraction of TR7’s creativity, he’ll have been worth it. He’s clearly got trickery, close-play skill, ball-ferrying ability, can finish, and can see an assist. His issue seems to be consistency, something that highlight vids don’t capture.
Emery by his own admission wanted 2 players, so I’m intrigued to see where he might deploy Suarez, whether wide or central. He did not get the wide players that Arsenal seemed to have pursued with varying degrees of energy — Carrasco and Perisic — and there was even talk of Malcom being in the mix. Could be that the club wants to pursue players long term, rather than as patches/fixes, and will wait till June to get optimal.
And speaking of Malcom, big clubs like Barcelona have this awful habit of stockpiling players. It’s not that they don’t believe in them, but that they make quick and ruthless purchasing and selling decisions around them. Doesn’t work out quickly?… tradable commodity.
It’s why I have some sympathy for Suarez. You don’t give a player Andres Iniesta’s iconic shirt number if you didn’t initially believe in him.
You’re right, my concern is Unai Emery, with Suarez and Iwobi we have players who can help play a stable 4-2-3-1 formation, perhaps Mhkitaryan could be a back up winger, the argument is that there is a need to have a consistent style, particularly against weaker opposition.
On a different note, the Iwobi racial incident slipped off the radar on here. Esha Gupta, a club ambassador called him a Neanderthal, but she was rebuked by fans on Twitter.
Iwobi is 21 or 22, and I really think as much as he is coming good, he looks to me like a late bloomer, so as much as he might be doing well under Emery, he is still far from his optimum level. At times he may seem frustrating, but it does not augur well for fans to subject him to verbal or racial abuse.
After the Man Utd loss, in the heat of the moment I thought he should be sold in the summer, then I saw the incident online. The comments were totally wrong and very disappointing.
She called him a gorilla-faced neanderthal.
I like him already! The guy has got mad close control and players like him are devastating on the counter! His dribbling looks like a santi and rosicky combo! Can someone have a sip from a cup of optimism juice?
ctpa, paredes isn’t going to psg for an injured veratti, he’s going to replace adrien rabiot, and to a lesser extent, the recently retired thiago motta. paredes is a cdm and will play just behind veratti.
concerning suarez, i thought he played well for villareal and couldn’t understand why he left to go to barcelona; i didn’t see a way for him to get into a side that had iniesta and coutinho. likewise, he was a player that was in the spain side despite not playing for real madrid or barcelona. i feel he’s been wasted sitting on the barcelona bench. likewise, i think he’ll be better than ramsey. the big question is will denis be an upgrade to ozil? it seems he already is in emery’s book. is he better than lo celso at real betis circa psg? that’s an interesting question. here’s why.
i believe emery upset the apple cart when he was at psg as he frequently dropped marco veratti for a young argentine named giovani lo celso. veratti is very popular in the psg locker room but lo celso did very well when given his chance. when it was announced that emery was leaving psg, i suggested arsenal go after lo celso. when it was announced that emery was coming to arsenal, my claims for this kid went into hyperdrive. why wouldn’t lo celso want to play for the guy that gave him a chance at psg?
prophetically, psg ditched lo celso, loaning him to betis, maybe in an attempt to appease veratti (disclaimer: that’s a wild guess that i just made up and i’m likely very wrong but why ditch such a talented young player)? my question is who would be emery’s preferred player, lo celso or suarez? it’s not important right now but it could be when it’s time for arsenal (and real betis) to make a decision on their loanees.
btw, barcelona just gave away suarez’ shirt number.
The booted Suarez because pretty much the moment they brought him in they knew he wasn’t good enough. Then they spend hundreds of millions buying similar players. It’s not like he didn’t make it in because there were no roster spots. They saw him play and were like “uhh, shit, we need to upgrade.”
He’s a 6th place team midfielder at best. Which is a dumb thing for me to say because I know better than to pretend that I know things are bad. But I’m confident saying it. Which is even more foolish.
I’m nothing if not foolish. You all should really stop listening to me. I don’t have a clue about anything.
It was Xavi’s number, and not Iniesta’s as I said. Iniesta wore 6 for Spain.
Giving away his shirt number is ruthless, and a statement of intent, very likely. But at least it’s being properly reclaimed by a central defender.
I liked the video. Good close control, and he’s quick, too (why did people say he was slow?).
We’re a 6th-place / Europa team all the way, and Denis fits the bill. He’s not going to fix what’s wrong with the team right now, but I didn’t think the club was going to address that this January anyway (see my longish comment above). So I’m feeling calm about the loan and his prospects.
Tom says he’s slow. For some weird reason not related to the widely available video evidence.
Couple of questions this Saturday:
1) Tomorrow’s match prediction: tightly fought loss, or rect*al blow-out?
2) When the Patriots win tomorrow, piling further misery on humanity and finally putting to bed the notion of a benevolent deity, will you take any consolation from Stan’s displeasure, thereby putting into slight doubt the idea of an uncaring universe, or is your loathing for Brady and Belichick a bottomless well?
Comment on
1) Man City will rip us a new one. If they don’t and we get any points from this encounter I will wear a Tom Brady jersey.
2) That I would under any circumstances actually wear a Tom Brady jersey should answer your other question.
I know there are a legion of NE fans and I grew up partly anyway, next door to Maine, in New Brunswick. Just like we get Bills games here in Toronto, the Maritimes got Patriots games. Back then, they were like the Bills. Mostly on the scrap heap, occasionally making the playoffs and I was fine with them.
Now? I think Bill Bilechek maybe the devil…
Away game against the champs? Big loss, 3-1 or 4-0.
I will root for the Patriots because I can’t Stan Stan and it’s already started anong some of the Arsenal faithful (who have no clue about how the NFL works) to say that Arsenal might “Pull a Rams”. I couldn’t stand three years of that.
Not for me.
As much as I dislike Kroenke, the close relationship of the trio of Belichick, Brady and Kraft with Trump easily outweighs the cunning cu#tishnes of Stan.
#fcuk the Patriots
Also, while the idea that Rams success will somehow correlate into Arsenal winning the league or CL is pretty much baseless, I struggle to see how it could hurt.
Kroenke is a Trum stan too.
Most billionaires are for obvious reason but the Patriots Trump love fest is just too fu#king much.
What success would Arsenal have to achieve for the entire 7 am community to wear on public at all times for entire year, any one of the following:
– Wayne Rooney, Man U.
– John Terry, Chel$ki
– Gallas/Adebayor, S#&rs
We’ll lose tomorrow, is my expectation. But lose narrowly, without being embarrassed. The full backs dealing with Sterling, Sane, Mahrez and Bernardo (quietly one of the players of the season in the PL) will need a long lie down afterwards. But we will rise to the occasion. We’ll score against them, probably than once, but City will be too good
The only way we don’t lose this game by three or more is if Pep takes pity on Emery and calls off his attack dogs.
Say what you will about Emery but you’ll be hard pressed to find a coach less inclined to moan about anything that might’ve gone against him.
You can almost guarantee that even if Arsenal lose by five Emery won’t mention injuries, referees or financial doping.
Kinda refreshing if you ask me.
Honestly, Tom. Sometimes you talk like someone who is new to sport.
Must-win game for City, because they lost their last one — against lowly opposition. Similar to Wolves, to whom they also lost at Christmas. If sport followed the linearity that said that Pep will have to call off his dogs to stop hitting us with a cricket score, it wouldnt be sport.
We have a nasty injury list, and this game favours City big time.
But we do have a mixed record against the big teams. Liverpool, a drawn game we should have won; and a hammering after our worst defensive show of the season. City, game 1 of the season, a routine win, but a game from which we might have got something if we had taken our chances. United, a game we should have won in the league; a comfortable win for them in the cup. Chelsea, should have taken all the points in the 2 league games. Spurs, stirring win the league, loss in the league cup.
Which Arsenal will show up? More to the point which City will show up? We will know soon.
I really love the phraseology you use to address my my posts , Claude 🙂
Things like “nonsense” and “new to the sport “ are my two favs, especially when they aim to knock statements fairly obvious to anyone who isn’t new to football.
If you don’t think that Pep and City players haven’t much incentive to run up the score against this heavy on Spanish presence Arsenal, then I don’t now what to tell you brother.
Also, interesting how you make a statement and then try to bend reality to fit your narrative.
City’s third was a hand ball, really?
Mate, you’ve been off your game this thread. Some terrible logic and arguments.
But one love, man.
5 starters out, what does everyone think is going to happen!
My expectation today is we are falling closer to Wolves.
lichtseinen is awful! every chance city have had has involved him. for such an experienced defender, he continually makes poor decisions. sterling only wants the ball on his right foot. same as bernardo on his left foot on the left side. these guys don’t want to go down the line so arsenal fullbacks should show them the line. it makes everything very predictable for the rest of the team. in fairness, monreal is doing okay, but lichtsteiner? i’m left unimpressed.
the 4-4-2 is a counter-attacking formation. with that, i don’t like the formation. i don’t think emery needs to change anything except at right back but i expect him to make a more dramatic change at halftime. we’ll see.
Halftime.
We have 2 problems, left and right flanks. On the right, Iwobi is at sea. Doesnt know if to close down or stand off, unnsure of the space to occupy, defensively dozy. Gave away the ball for the opening goal, dozily trying to play it out of his box. Thats a coach’s nightmare. You can set up how well you like, with the best tactics in the world, but if you give the ball away in your own box and cioncede a 1st minute goal, it’s going to stun the team. And it did.
The other problem is Kolasinac. There’s so much I like about his forward play, but defensively, he’s got sh1t for brains. He’d giving Nacho no help at all. And as the half ended, he was joining the attack…DOWN OUR RIGHT!
On the positive side, I flippin’ love Matteo Guendouzi. He’s playing the game and not the occasion, and has been immense for us. The kid has no fear.
Let’s applaud that bit of creative magic from Gundogan. Super goal from City. Are we going to see Ozil? we certainly need some creativity. We cant keep playing long balls over the top to Auba all game long. I dont think he’s won a single header
agree with your kolasinac assessment, however he hasn’t been arsenal’s biggest problem. as for him playing on the right side, that’s a momentum of play thing.
ditto with matteo as well.
Aaaaaand…. theyve both been substituted.
props for leaving xhaka out of the team again!
Injury.
57th minute and both the arsenal center mids look wiped.
Aaaannnnnd…we’re 6th again, exactly where we should expect to be and remain until the end of the season.
Hey, did you see that I predicted the score?
NEVER QUESTION ME THE ORACLE.
I did see that, Tim. I’m thinking about a catchy nickname for you a la David Ornstein’s “Ornacle.”
Tornacle?
Testicle?
Testicle it is.
Tim, I love that your filter is fine with testicle and fellatio.
Tells you a lot about Tim doesn’t it 🙂
Hey Tom,
We really need you to take one for the team. We are the Fyre Fest of blogs and we need water.
I bet. You blouse!
First of all, I’m proud of approximately 38 minutes of that performance, between their first and second goals. Arsenal didn’t look out of their depth against the champs and gave them some issues up front during those minutes. We couldn’t sustain that level against them after going down 2-1 and they absolutely feasted on Lichtsteiner who was worse than useless in both phases as Josh says. With an even replacement level RB in there I think this is a much closer game. The problem Emery has is if he plays AMN, he might get exposed on the offside trap as he did against MU, but at this point it’s hard to make any case for Lichtsteiner getting a start for this club again.
For my money Emery needed to change things faster in the second half with City overwhelming the central mids with numbers and destroying the RB. I wanted to see a direct sub at RB and Ramsey on for Kolasinac to add numbers to midfield and provide a better link. The latter eventually came but the former was inexplicably allowed to finish the 90 minutes.
To add to halftime comments…
Handball for Aguero’s 3rd. Am I being paranoid in thinking that the commentators wouldn’t have glossed over it if it had been an Arsenal player? The goal should not have stood.
Love PEA, but he was dreadful today. Would love to see his touchmap. If you’re going to play both PEA and Laca, play Laca CF. Aubameyang is not going to hold it up when possession is scarce.
Sterling on Licht wasnt fair. Social services need to arrest the kid for consistently abusing the old man. He and Iwobi had a defensive horror show on the right. Part of the reason that Iwobi conceded possession is that Licht hang back in the box and didnt give Iwobi an outlet wider right
Guendouzi, Laca, Torreira annd Koscielnny apart, we played like a team that feared City. There was precious little heart out there.
A word about Mustafi. This is… what, the 4th game this season he’s limped out of ? No other Arsenal player has had to be subbed off as much for knocks. To add to the 27 things I don’t like about him, I’ll add a lack of toughness and what English fans call “bottle”. I cant want to see Mustafi out of my club.
Emery, my man. You needed creativity. And you had Mesut Ozil. Connect the dots.
Honestly, it was all his fault (emery) horrible selection, wrong formation against city and annoying game plan. Elneny, litschteiner don’t deserve to be anywhere around this club!
As Josh said, Lichtsteiner wasn’t just getting beaten 1v1 by a more athletic and more skillful player, he was also just not doing basic things you expect a veteran to do with his eyes closed. For example, you stand off of Raheem and show him on his left while you close DS down hard toward his left. He played everyone with the same sort of soft approach at 45 degrees, not really shading either side and conceding the space in front of him as well as behind him.
Somewhere in London, a small Spanish man wearing expensive cologne and a large brace on his knee is shedding silent tears.
Spot on.
I’d forgive him — honestly — if he tried to close properly, win the ball and concede the foul.
By the way, everyone… what happened to our press? Team looks like it’s being coached by Elneny. We gave them sooo much time and space on the ball. EVERY time it was sprayed wide left to Sterling, Lichtsteiner wasn’t at home.
Can Iwobi tackle? Does Iwobi tackle? Beats me. I saw him win a ball in the 2nd half and almost fainted.
Jokes on emery if he thinks Suarez will be good enough a replacement for ozil,.. that game was void of creativity.. he’s got video clips all the time, and the Newcastle game would have been perfect! iJeez! i’m guessing he never bothered! Can’t cut the man any more slacks! 😠😠
Litschteiner was horrible today! He needs to retire..jeez! Jenko would been a better option today..
A bad weekend for the Kroenke’s will be complete when the Rams lose to the Patriots. Colorado Avalanche demolished by the Canucks yesterday and Arsenal outclassed by City today.
Poor performance. Not from the players (Except Licht) but the coach. I mean we expected to lose to City, and we did great to come back after that early setback to score from a corner. But where was the creativity? On the bench. Ramsey, Suarez and Ozil all there while we struggled to create anything, but also struggled and failed, inevitably, to keep them out.
Reading that Emery might have sort of thrown the players under the bus in his post match interview today. Haven;t seen it and maybe it’s out of context but, contrarily, my thought in the second half today was ‘the manager is letting the players down’.
We’ve fared decently well against City when we’ve tried to play. We have the players to cause them trouble but chose not to play them. Even if we defended perfectly and didn’t concede, all we were hoping to do was rely on individual quality up front. That’s Mourinho-esque.
Btw, Guendouzi in that first half. What a performance. The guy’s going to be sold in a couple of years for 70m.
Ok so that ‘throwing under the bus’ stuff was a deliberate out of context quote, drawn out for a headline.
Wow, that’s quite a difference in tone from you from the Wenger era to this, Shard.
I could just see how Emery pulled Alex Iwobi a side in training and told him:
“when trying to bring the ball out of the danger area, with some 18 players in or just around your own penalty box, don’t try to run it out towards the touch line and out of danger, but rather see if you can squeeze past the defender who’s already showing you inside”, which is what Laporte did.
It is a change of tone. But it’s because Emery doesn’t seem to want to bring to the table what he said he would. He’s not attack oriented, he’s pushing out the creative players in order to do what? Win?
I think the results are fine. Don’t mind that at all. But even if the results were slightly better, I wouldn’t be happy about how we approach games.
I started out the season by giving Emery the same benefit of doubt I gave Wenger. It’s just that as time’s gone on, I have less doubt that Emery’s going a different way.
Emery should be a one and done coach. That’s why Arsenal is not buying players in Jan and only looking for loans. That’s why Ozil is staying and not going on loan, because a new coach will come in to maximize the most expensive player’s talent and build a team that fits to it.
I really hope I am right. Because we are losing points due to Emery’s selection.
Possible, but only if Josh pushes for it I think. Emery seems to be Raul’s man and right now, we ain’t got no one else in charge.
I think if we fail at getting CL, Raul will push to get Monchi or someone of the sort and say Emery just needs support, rather than sack him and begin the search anew.
When you’re hitting long balls to your elite centre forwards, who had no shots in goal second half, that’s on the coach. It was a tactical sh1t show from Arsenal.
True dat. Like I said, Borinhoesque.
Remember my comment earlier about Emery being my concern and his inability to stick to his initial attacking philosophy and 4-2-3-1 formation?
This match showed a similar situation to PSG’s Champions League ouster last season. Draxler made a comment about attacking more, but the coach had different ideas and they lost. So, Emery does seem like he is unable to raise his game against accomplished opposition.
The club is to blame for the signing of Lichsteiner and no defenders in the January window.