Somewhat rosy season preview

101 comments

1. I like Odegaard and I really like the downward trend for the team’s age profile that all the new signings are helping. It means we might be building to something really good in 2-3 years time and worst case scenario, we’re not going to lose money on any of these guys if they move on, even Ramsdale. Agreed that all the young players being bought and the outlay means that Arteta is here for the season, any sacking-scenario stories are b.s.

   I just don’t know how keep all these attackers happy with limited game time this season, and not sure Arteta has the man-management skills to convince them not to start grumbling and disrupting harmony. If we’re comparing ourselves to Leicester now (and I think that’s our new benchmark), they have a much much leaner team.

   What’s our best line-up right now, barring injuries or bad dips in form?

   Ramsdale(?)
   Tierney/Gabriel/White/Chambers(?)
   Partey/Xhaka
   ESR/Odegaard/Saka
   Lacazette

   I think Laca is a better fit than Aubameyang with the three CAMs, he seems to be able to participate better in the build up and passing movements and can get himself about.

   So Auba, Pepe (despite improving) and Martinelli will be luxuries off the bench and used for Cup games? Willian will never get dressed. That’s a lot of discontent, including from fans.

   I think we may move up to 6th, but I think it will still be hard to overtake Leicester for 5th. And the top 4 are miles ahead of everyone else.

   1. Not to sound like Bill but who puts the ball in the net in that team? Laca drops off too much so you need goals from the wings which Saka doesn’t quite have the clinical edge for as yet. I think if you’ve got ESR Ode and Saka behind you play Auba. He will feed off all that creativity and score a hatful.

      If you go with Laca you need someone like Pepe who is a clinical finisher and has good movement to take advantage of his deep play.

      1. I think Laca scores 15-20 goals if he plays regularly and not in a side that is living on the counter-attack (he doesn’t have the speed), which if we have ESR/MO/Saka in midfield we may be able to play a more measured build-up style that keeps our possession stats >65%. Aubameyang needs space and if you watch him, he doesn’t combine with midfielders the way Lacazette does. That said, it’s clear we’re all hoping Martinelli or Balogun become that striker that can play either style.

2. Will this permanent signing of Odegaard change your outlook on loans to maybe a bit more positive? 😉

   You’ve historically been very down on loaning good players from bigger clubs.

   1. Still am, always will be, all the loan did was waste a year of everyone’s time, cost Arsenal money, and raise his price.

      Plus, let’s not forget that he was injured so it wasn’t even a successful loan.

      1. But the loan definitely helped him like us and also gave Arteta a taste which helped him make up his mind. Our sticking to our first choice AM all summer has been one of the best transfer moves I can remember for quite some time.

3. Great analysis, pretty much 100% agree. I’d be completely fine with 5th or 6th at this point and some evidence of tactical improvement, particularly on offense.
   If we can get the attack sorted out, and if some of these new players play to their potential and stay healthy, then top 4 in 2-3 years seems more reasonable.

   On the outgoing front I wonder if they will be desperate enough to move some of the players mentioned to pay a portion of their salary. i.e. if Willian isn’t going to play at all(and he shouldn’t) and we’re paying him $200k/wk, I’d be willing to pay $100K/wk if Fenerbache paid the balance in order to get them to take him.

   The attack is still a big question for me. I’m not usually short on opinions, but I’m at a point where I really don’t have an idea of what combo of Auba/Laca/Pepe is the best option. I don’t think either Balogun or Martinelli is at a point where we can count on them to lead the attack, but we should get them minutes. Assuming it’s unlikely we get another med-high end forward without selling one of Auba/Laca/Pepe, one or two of those players is going to have to step up significantly from last year. Or it’s going to be a struggle to get to 5th or 6th.

4. First I’d like to thank you because of your positivity. Good vibes are hard to come by in the Arse-verse.
   Secondly, I’d like to voice my fears that Arteta’s Ideal playing style is too Pep-y. As you said, everyone can feel that this isn’t his preferred style and he’s doing it because of the players at his disposal. But I always hoped we would get expansive Invincibles-style football in the (very) long term. Now that I think about it I’m afraid that he’s going to go for the false-nine nonsense and that scares me. His signings have a whiff of City (White reminds me of Stones) and I don’t like it. How someone can look at the marvel of a good modern center forward (like Lewy, Lukaku or…) and decide he doesn’t want that even though he has the money is beyond me. So, am I wrong?

5. I wish I had your optimism, Tim. We have a few decent players here and there but for the most part I don’t think this summer’s transfer window has been a good one. White for 50mil was not good business, IMHO. 30mil for Ramsdale is a highway robbery. 30mil for Odegaard is questionable to say the least given how little we’ve seen from him so far. Tavares and Lokonga were decent buys, I think, especially given their price tags. Having said that, everyone and their grandma knew that we needed another CM, a backup keeper, a right back, and a CAM. We could and should have done our business early/ier but we didn’t. And we still haven’t offloaded a ton of dross that’s eating up at our wage bill. Elneny, Kolasinac, Bellerin, Torreira just to name a few. And I’m not even talking about guys like Willian, Soares, or Xhaka. So as I said before, we may have some decent players on our hands but the amount of negatives including our “genius” of a manager who’s (partially) responsible for the mess that we are in heavily outweigh the positivity and excitement for this season for me. I don’t think we’ll finish higher than 7-8th with Arteta still in charge. In fact, I’m almost at a point where I’m wishing for us to lose just so he gets the sack. That’s how much I despise the SOB.

6. I was determined not to get irritated at Arteta’s clear unfitness for the job… until we were 15th in December. At which point I got highly irritated and more irritated when people tried to frame the second half of the season as some sort of comeback.

   I am currently irritated at Arteta, and likely to stay irritated ’til he’s put out of his misery. Healthy? Debatable. It helps me avoid expecting things, while retaining the idea that it is alright for an Arsenal fan to expect *some* standards.

7. Good one, Tim. I love your determination to not get needlessly downbeat. But…

   I know that you and Nate would have considered all the factors in your permutations, but unless youre City, weekend form takes a big hit from midweek engagements. There’s also a lot of resting, rotation, chopping and changing going on.

   I hope that the owners/board take the view that there’s no point in not having the exhausting distraction of traveling to Europe and the Middle and Near East in midweek, and not finishing at least 4th. All things considered, 6th (to me) isn’t acceptable.

   Arsenal have also, to date, spent the most money of any Premier League club — 130m GBP. MikEdu have no excuses. Time will tell whether we went for quantity or quality.

   If given the spending and and less strain on the squad from not having to play in Europe, the coach and DOF cant make a run at Top 4, what is the point? The board/owners are clearly giving Arteta the tools to do his job. For goodness sake, Ramsdale and White were costlier buys than anyone would have imagined. How much more of a “yes” can you get from approval of those purchases?

   There’s nothing anyone can do about players who can’t be moved on, but that has been a reality of every marketplace every window, even it has been exacerbated in the post Covid market. The question is how do you use those player in a way that preserves some value, and this is a question that MikEdu has flunked.

   Sixth would be settling into a comfort-zone, and I dont think that the level of spending suggests that. Mikel is being given rope. Let’s hope he uses it to secure the ship, and not do anything to himself. Top 4 is hard, but it shouldnt be seen asking too much.

   1. Claude – So right. It’s no excuses time. We SHOULD compete for top 4 this season. I guess I’ve just lowered my expectations. 6th wouldn’t be anything to shout about, but I think the Kroenkes have clearly given ArtEdu the reins, and would likely stick with them. They bought into 2 inexperienced guys running the football operations. If the needle has moved in the right direction, they will be loathe to start from scratch, believing that they already have paid for them to learn on the job, and now they will come good. Not what I would do, but that’s the reality of this ownership.

8. £140m to strengthen the 2nd string. Are you serious?

   Who spends anywhere near that amount on reserves?

   Many fans are so desperate that Arteta succeeds that they would applaud if he bought Cliff Bastin back.

   A centre back we don’t need and, it seems, is useless in the air, a reserve goalkeeper worth his weight in gold, literally, a reserve left back, a young midfielder who has hardly played any games and Odegaard who cannot even get into the squad at Real and has been out on loan to different clubs for donkey’s years.

   There are 4 clubs laughing all the way to the bank at their luck in finding a bunch of suckers and our fans are applauding and want more.

   In the meantime the management have been turning a blind eye whilst 4 of their expensive players go and get covid.

   We have been the laughing stock of the league since Emery came and we remain a really good source of humour since.

   So how many more players are we going put on gardening leave?

   Frankly, what was wrong with Torreira anyway? When he came everyone was raving about him and then Emery started to play him out of position.

   1. “what was wrong with Torreira anyway?”

      5’3″ and 132lbs – he literally pings off people when he tries to tackle them and his main method of holding on to the ball is to fall over and pretend he was fouled when he’s closed down. But you’re right, we were raving about him at first, I was very high on his data from Serie A and liked his first few games, but then we watched him play.

      As for the rest, we needed to strengthen the reserves. Leno is leaving on a free so we need a 1st choice keeper, I guess the club like Ramsdale and that’s who they have picked to take over. We needed a backup LB. We needed to replace Ceballos. We needed to buy Odegaard/replace him. It was £140m we needed to spend, just to break even and have any chance to improve. To do what I think you want to do we’d have to spend £240m. I’d love to see it but I’m surprised we’ve even spent the money we have.

9. With Ødegaard at only 22, and Saka and Smith Rowe still developing, the buds of a brilliant midfield are in place. That’s positive.

   However, in the near term, I am struggling not be downbeat, especially after capitulating in spectacular fashion against a newly promoted side in our opener.

   Not even looking beyond the New Year and just at 2021, I am struggling to see where we will get the points to take us above the bottom half of the table. I think we’ll huff and puff to get to 35 points at Christmas, if we’re lucky and there are no major knocks to important players.

10. i agree with claudeivan. there’s no good reason why arsenal shouldn’t expect to finish in the top 4. i’ll take it a step further and say the goal should be to win the league, as that’s what big teams do. if you’re fighting to win the league, european qualification takes care of itself. arteta is taking it game by game, which i kinda respect. with the money spent and the time arteta’s had, he needs to deliver.

    in a twisted way, i’m happy it’s covid that lacazette and aubameyang had and not some internal turmoil. when the club said they were “doubtful” 8 days before the chelsea game, my first thought was covid but then i thought if it were covid, the club would have just come out and said that, right? the story is that auba has tested negative and is close to contention but laca is still recovering. i hope they both fully recover as covid sucks. likewise, arsenal will need both their swords in the battle this campaign. we still don’t know the long term effects covid have on players. some people have heavy residuals. auba’s already had covid and malaria this year and it’s still only august.

    an aside, several yeas ago, i had a conversation with one of my players. with him being a goalkeeper, i asked him who was his favorite goal keeper and, no lie, he told me aaron ramsdale. i asked “are you serious?” he assured me that this guy, the bournemouth keeper at the time and no where near the england squad, is top quality. i trust his judgement as he, too, is quality. he didn’t say neuer, ter stegen, alisson, or buffon (my favorite). let’s see if he was on to something long before any of us were.

    1. Josh – really interesting to hear that about Ramsdale from another keeper. I’m wondering if Arteta and Edu realized that Ben White is not strong enough in the air, and we can’t compound that with a keeper who doesn’t boss the box like Leno. They are all in on the new boy, even if that means a new keeper. Distribution will be the big question mark for Ramsdale. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if he ends up a net improvement. I’ve been a big supporter of Leno, but have to concede something doesn’t seem right with him.

       1. I have to say, I think Leno’s become worse since we sold Martinez and we changed the goalkeeping coach. Before that, I think every Arsenal fan thought we were lucky to have him, even though Emi had started setting some tongues wagging as to his superior distribution and authority claiming crosses.

          1. Interesting fact but Ramsdale is slightly better than Leno at claiming crosses and Leno is basically the exact same % as Emi.

             1. The % claiming crosses stat is fraught with issues, isn’t it? For me the largest part of a GK ability from crosses is not whether but WHICH crosses he claims (and how many). In other words, how well can he judge his ability to get to crosses? You can be 100% on crosses claimed if you only go for the lame ducks and thus give up too many headers in your box. I admit Emi did seem to have an uncanny ability to be found under crosses that my eye test says Leno just doesn’t have. Moreover, he never seemed to have to punch them, like Leno does. I did think he was superior in that aspect to Leno.

11. Wow, this is such a polarized group here.

    I’m surprised to see your optimism, Tim. Seems like you’ve had a more detached/disillusioned vibe about Arsenal, so I expected a more downbeat assessment. It’s made me feel much better about our chances to see your rosy predictions.

    As said above, being out of Euro football is a big advantage – especially since Covid will likely continue to wreak havoc on teams as it did ours in week 1. By February and March we might just be healthier than the Top 6 teams who are traveling to other countries (getting exposed to Covid) and feeling more fatigued.

    To be better, we have to maintain our defensive results and improve our goals. If Ben doesn’t sync well with Gabriel, or if one/both are injured, we are in trouble. I think we outperformed our XGa a bit last year, so reverting to the mean wouldn’t be a surprise.

    As for attack, I agree we should get more goals from midfield with our kids maturing, and having MØ for a full season. So, if we slip a bit defensively, but improve by 10% in goals scored, I expect 6th. I would be happy with 5th, and ecstatic if we finished 4th. But not entirely surprised by 7th or 8th.

    There’s a silver lining if Arteta can’t get the results we want. The squad is now largely composed of young, promising players with a bright future that a good coach can mold into a real competitor. We’ll know soon enough if Arteta is that coach.

12. We will finish 5/6/7

    I think if Spurs retain Kane, they are significantly better than us,Jose underperformed with that squad greatly.

    Arsenal , Leicester are similar level squads.
    Leicester have better first xi, arsenal have better depth.

    Basically what Arteta has done is improve the floor of squad.

    So that there is no chance of a relegation battle next season lol.

    But we haven’t improved the ceiling of this team.

    For this team to get to 70 points, saka, Martinelli and ESR have to improve greatly

13. Tim, do you have any data on ramsdale, the analysis I’ve seen shows him parry an awful lot of shots? That’s fine if you’re at Sheffield and just there to make the save but a gk at a top club it’s not just making the save it’s how you make it I guess because having shots parried all over the box doesn’t fill me with confidence so I wondered if this is a statistical issue as well as a trend from the video analysis? Many thanks

    1. I haven’t looked at where he parries his shots. I didn’t even know that data was available.

       I do know that his season was bifurcated almost exactly in half with the first half making him one of the worst keepers in the league and the 2nd half making him one of the best. The Sheffield United supporters even blamed him for a number of losses in the first half and a lot were calling for him to be dropped. Word is that he is a “confidence” player and that he “lacked confidence” in the first half of the season.

       As for the more important question: how well does he play the ball out the back? No one knows.

       Overall, what I consider an extremely risky signing.

       1. Thanks Tim. Watching the video analysis and England goalkeeper training videos he does seem an incredible shot stopper but he does not seem to hold many saves and I worry whether that could be an issue when hopefully you’re not a team who’s main objective is to save goals at all costs. I’m not sure if saves held vs parried is a statistic available, I hoped you might know, I’d imagine it’s an important and pretty objective metric unlike some?

          1. It’s a great suggestion, honestly. You could go with saves held, parried away, parried to danger, and so on. We’d have to study whether it had any better analytical value over the current metrics which are just about how well a keeper saves over the expected goals. My guess is that it would but I don’t know anyone collecting that data.

14. Thoughts on the squad and season prospects:

    – Surprised we bought before selling. The squad was already bloated and there are many less games to play this season.
    – I’ve seen our business described as lazy and would have to concur. Seems we’re happy to pay way over the odds for plan A rather than have a plan B and C.
    – What we need in defence is the leadership and organisation Luiz brought. In that regard I’d say we’ve taken a step backwards. Ramsdale is rated well but has never played for a top team so it’s a leap of faith. Regardless, he’s a step below Martinez presently. Let’s be frank, EduArt’s judgement on goalkeepers has been woeful to date.
    – Not sure how Arteta will keep so many attacking players happy. Let’s say we play three at the back (the system White played last season) with thee double DM pivot of Xhaka and Partey ahead. That leaves five spots between Willian, Pepe, MO, Saka, ASR, AMN, Lokonga, Laca, Auba and all the others. Good luck keeping them all happy.
    – I don’t see an improvement in the squad’s ability. Yes we’ve bought younger players but it seems any optimism rests entirely on the majority of younger players improving this season. I could point to hundreds of top performers in the league including players like Rashford where it just doesn’t work like that. Are Saka, MO and ASR going to explode this season and suddenly find their shooting boots? I hope so but much of it will depend on the coach’s system.
    – Nothing exists to convince me that Arteta can excel tactically or motivate performances that would see Arsenal finish 5th or 6th. You have to be worried about the calibre of your coach and players when opposition players publicly explain how easy we are to play against.

    1. Typo – that leaves three spots for the creative / finishing players to share.

    2. -We didn’t have any choice, our players aren’t in demand.
       -6 years ago this would have been described as “decisive” and when the club switched to plan B or C, fans would complain that Arsenal are being cheap and waffling.
       -Fair
       -Well, if they are unhappy I don’t care. They can leave. All I care about is that we are winning.
       -Young players improving and getting a full season from MØ and ESR. Those aren’t irrational. Could it fail, absolutely. Predicting that systems will fail is easy since all systems fail eventually.
       -I am not a fan of Arteta or his system, specifically that I don’t think it works with the majority of players we have, but I think we have the talent to finish top of the 2nd tier.

    3. “when opposition players publicly explain how easy we are to play against.”

       Surely you’re not referencing the Gabby Agbonlahor interview? He hasn’t played against us in a long time, and wasn’t very successful when he did. Do you have other specific examples of this?

       1. As recently as Brentford. That recent enough for you?

          1. Who on Brentford said that we were easy to play against? That seems to be the claim you made. I don’t recally any such quotes.

15. Great post Tim. Thanks for the preview. Brilliantly writing as always. Optimism is in short supply. I am not really sure it’s valid optimism for this coming season since because I agree with Chao and we still have not added anyone new who can put the ball in the back of the net. However, if the club is building towards competing for a top 4 finish 2 or 3 years from now It brilliantly written as always.

    The idea that Saka and ESR will improve their ability to score or create goals is not held up by historical data. I understand the optimism but We have seen dozens and dozens of Uber talented youth players who did not improve their end product production as they matured. I don’t really see how we can get Saka, Odegaard and ESR in the starting 11 regularly. That does not leave any space on the pitch for someone who can actually turn their creativity and passes into goals scored. Hopefully the plan is to add some firepower in the next couple of transfer windows and compete for the top 4 in a couple years.

    1. “The idea that Saka and ESR will improve their ability to score or create goals is not held up by historical data.”

       Yes, it absolutely is.

       1. I don’t know about historical data but to my eyes,it looks like Saka is basically world class in general play.

          He has superb off the ball movement.
          He can strike the ball hard as well.

          If he can learn to hit the corners of the goal,I wouldn’t be surprised if he scored 15 from RW.

          That’s how big a jump he can potentially make.

    2. City played (and still plays) with attacking midfielders in the half channels – David Silva, DeBruyne, Bernardo Silva. Even Foden is less winger than attacking midfielder who comes inside constantly. We played ESR, Odegaard and Saka together last season some games and it flowed pretty well. Width comes from Tierney and X overlapping on the flanks. I think it’s very plausible to get all three in the starting line-up together; it has nice balance, interplay options and I think the ball retention will increase substantially. Auba and Pepe are not helpful keeping possession.

    3. Bill, you make this very point repeatedly, but to my knowledge you’ve never backed it up with a shred of evidence or even a single example. Historical data? Where is it then? There is absolutely no reason on earth, why Saka and/or ESR cannot improve their finishing. All the good finishers in world football started off their careers as youth team players at some club or other. Indeed, Harry Kane started off as an Arsenal youth and look where he’s got to. I agree most never make the grade, but to completely write off the possibility to develop a certain skill isn’t logical. It can and does happen. Not often, I agree. An example? Ray Parlour. I was at the training ground when he came on as a sub in an under 18 match. Hard working, but I don’t recall him scoring a single goal all season. He went on to have a pretty good career and scored some quite memorable goals, most notably in the Cup Final. Did he develop his finishing? Yeah. It can and does happen.

       1. Remember Andrew Cole? I do. Came to Arsenal as a skinny 15year old kid, bags of skill, but a bit of an attitude problem. Not a prolific goal scorer despite his natural talent. Marched into George Graham’s office one day and said he should be in the 1st team. George forcibly told him that both Kevin Campbell and Ian Wright scored more goals, so sold him to Newcastle. Up there he formed a partnership with Peter Beardsley and scored a hatful. They then sold him to United where he did the same with Teddy Sherringham. Ended up as one of the Premier League’s all time top goal scorers.
          Watching ESR and Saka play, they both have the necessary technique and temperament to put the ball in the net. If anything, they’re let down mostly by the players around them, who don’t take players away by making runs into the right spaces. Pepe and Auba, in particular, aren’t very good at reading their runs. Basically we have a forward line, which misfires, because it is completely imbalanced. Sort that out and they will get goals.
          Writing them off in any way, is completely unjustified.

16. Sorry Tim, one last question, I heard oh_that_crab reference that statistically we were the second slowest team the league in build up last season. I wondered your take on that and whether you think Arteta can salvage this as it clearly doesn’t play to Auba’s strengths or arguably the hale end boys. Is this xhaka driven? Are the ‘slowness’ in build up stats available by player to identify the cause?

    1. Another way of saying slow buildup is patient buildup, or simply ball retention. Arteta wants the ball and that’s a large part of his defensive philosophy. Conservative passing may be boring but every second you have the ball is another second the opponent can’t use to score on you. So you can speed up the pace, but can’t that also mean that you just lose possession all the time, or play long balls every time you win it back? Surely that’s not what we want to see either. Such are the perils of any metric when taken in isolation.

17. This link compares Leno, Martinez and Ramsdale’s stats for last season. It’s not deep dive but shows there’s not much between the three except when it comes to passing:

    https://www.planetfootball.com/quick-reads/how-arsenal-bound-aaron-ramsdale-compared-with-bernd-leno-and-emi-martinez-in-2021-22/

18. 5th or 6th will be a very good season. I’m saying we finish 7th or 8th though.

    I agree Arsenal won’t sack Arteta unless relegation is a real threat. They’ve put in a lot of money in implementing his vision and process. I don’t think it’s a good process, but agree that the players bring something positive.

    I also agree that Ben White, Lokonga, Tavares were brought in also for their recovery speed so that we can push up higher to attack. Odegaard to add some technical security alongside/instead of ESR and Saka is a good thing. We’re less likely to lose possession ourselves while trying to press high.

    I’m not sure how ready Saka is to add to his goalscoring, but Pepe should, and Auba really should.

19. Tim @ 6;45

    I am basing that statement on what I have seen at Arsenal for the last 15 years. There have been many many talented younger players from the academy and young players we purchased coming thru the ranks during those years. Ramsey had one great year which he never came close to replicating and Walcott had one season where scored 14 goals which he also never replicated. Unfortunately almost 100% of the younger players ended up hitting an “end product” ceiling very early in their Arsenal careers which is significantly lower then we hoped and they never broke tthru that ceiling and in most cases we end up selling them similar to Ox, Walcott, Bendtner and dozens of others. Conventional wisdom suggests that younger players get better and more productive in terms of goals and assists as they mature but that has not been the case with our younger players during their Arsenal careers. ESR will likely lose significant minutes now that Odegasrd has arrived. The point is that betting on Saka and ESR to really ramp up goals and assists is far from a sure thing, in fact I would argue that it’s unlikely based on past experience with Arsenal.

    1. I’m basing it on data.

20. Shard

    I agree that 6th place would represent a good season. I also agree the Pepe should score more but over the years the things that we hope should happen in terms of individual players improving year over year has not come anywhere close to matching what actually has happened.

    In terms of Auba, this is his age 32 season. None of Arsenal’s top scorers or creators in this century has remained productive in terms of scoring/assists at that age. Look up the numbers but there has not been a single one of Anelka, Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, Adebyor, Bendtner, Welbeck, Walcott, Eduardo, Van Persie, Sanchez, Giroud, Podolski Fabregas, Ozil who was had anywhere close to his top production during his age 32 season. Some even flamed out in their late 20s. Anything is possible and that does not mean that Auba can’t have a better season but realistically I think the chances of a big comeback or a return to golden boot level scoring are very slim at best.

21. Hi Tim,

    I have only this to say. I am so sad to see a very promising club like Arsenal deteriorate this quickly. The worst part the club management, the player management and even the way we play gives us very little to hope for.

    For me, the signing of Ben White is the most self-serving, self-centred signing of all times. Everyone knows inside and outside of the club that we don’t need him. Now all we got is another soft defender for 50 quid.

    A true manager that cares for the club will not make most of the signings we did this summer until we got rid of the players we really especially in positions that were we are not overly weak per say.

    We had an offer to move Xhaka to Roma so we signed Lokonga who is a very different and good replacement. But at the last minute, we decided otherwise why?

    We signed Tavares but we had not moved Kolasinac who for me is a very viable player for a back up on the left.

    The two most important players we needed came last. The keeper choice is very good but expensive quality for a backup. Considering that we let Emi leave at exactly the same price range.

    Odegard signing feels right only because of the quality of our young lads and how he will compliment them.

    If you literally zoom out and take a look at Arsenal, you see that we are literally at our last legs as a club. We are buying failed player (who we make them fail or are just as bad as they come), our reserves is literally running our game now. If we cannot sustain them, then we will be in big trouble as a club.

    Note: Remember bad ass young players like Jay-Emmanuel-Thomas, Adelaide, Zelalem, Gnabry and a lot of good players could not even make it into our first team?

    Chai!!

    1. “But at the last minute, we decided otherwise why?” – I am just guessing here but it’s probably because Arteta likes Xhaka and he’s sort of one of our best MFers, and because Partey is always hurt, and because Partey is going to AFCON in Jan.

       “but we had not moved Kolasinac” – wages. Plus he sucks and he was found out in the Bundesliga last season. No one even wants him on loan. That was a bad deal from the start. Another one spotted by the analytics folks which turned out to be a bad call. Just accept that he will be with us for the rest of his contract.

       “but expensive quality for a backup.” – he’s definitely being brought in to replace Leno. The problem is that Arsenal wanted to sell Leno and keep Emi but no one wanted Leno. The right move would have been to keep both but Emi wanted a guaranteed first choice and we didn’t give it to him. So, we had to sell Emi. Now Leno is refusing to re-sign with us and looks like he’s refusing a sale because he wants a Bosman move. So, we are handcuffed by our own ineptitude. The only logical solution at this point is to buy a future #1 which is what we did.

22. The doom and gloom is thick after the loss at Brentford, on a weekend the Top 6 did the business in style (Notice that I didnt say the “the rest of the Top 6”).

    But you know what? I wouldnt put it past us to get something off Chelsea — a draw and even a win. That’ll be difficult without Auba and Laca, though. I’d play Pepe as central striker. He’s a got a good shot, good goal productivity. Besides, against Brentford, he reverted to one-footedness, checking back inside onto his left.

    I’d go 3-4-3 (ish)….

    —White Holding Tierney—
    Hector Sambi Granit Saka
    ———Emile Martinelli——–
    ————–Pepe—————

    Hector and Ben White are both better in a back 3. I actually back Arteta’s selection of Chambers over Bellerin in a back 4. Chambers is a much better defender; Hector is a bit lightweight. But in a back 3 with defensive security behind him, he’s a good and clever operator. Balogun isnt ready for this occasion. Mari hasnt played well and goes out of my XI. Im not in love with Xhaka’s slow game in this situation, but needs must.

    Lukaku, Mount and Chelsea’s young, mobile frontline are going to be an absolute pests when we try to pass it out from the back. Leno’s got to be on his game, as does the central midfield. This is a game that calls for Ozil’s cleverness in possession. He always did well against big, technically good teams like Chelsea.

23. Ramsdale’s sheer delight at joining Arsenal was endearing. He was like a kid at Christmas. It is a cynical old game these days, but you love to see that. Perhaps Im reading too much into it, but it feels to me as if he’s a lad who’Il give everything on the pitch. I wish him the best in his Arsenal career.

    1. On another note, Arsenal’s own official website has commentary on Leno’s shortcomings.

       https://www.arsenal.com/news/what-ramsdale-will-bring-arsenal?fbclid=IwAR2oE0OiGrLjkKcYOWfGH6i3w-aTUns1wVcKNyy4YQYXwpsF7BBX7YBRuTc

       This is the money quote: “It is well known that Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta likes to play out from the bank (sic), with his goalkeeper arguably the most important player in the build-up phase.
       Current no.1 Bernd Leno is an excellent shot-stopper but has sometimes struggled with short distribution from goal-kicks. However, Ramsdale is perhaps slightly more gifted with the ball at his feet than the German.”

       😳wtf?

       I’m very surprised that that got editorial approval. This is Arsenal’s site, not a blog. What sort of slackness is that? It is as good an illustration you’ll get that Arsenal is being run like a rum shop. If I was Leno, I’d be livid.

       If you wanted to know Arteta’s thinking on buying Ramsdale, there you have it, very clearly. The cost of clarity (or CYA) is throwing Leno under the bus.

       1. Eh, it’s a fairly standard op-ed from the guy they hire to do the tactics pieces for Arsenal. I wouldn’t read that much into it. I think the clearer signal is that they felt the need to bring in a guy who is ready to be #1 instead of another career backup like Runarsson. That sends a much clearer message than a tactics column.

          1. Er, public relations consultant and 30 year veteran of the media here, Dr Gooner. It is absolutely not standard practice to tell the world — on your own f***ing website — about the shortcomings off your emplyee.

             There must be a limit to your “see no evil” tic.

             1. Apologies for swearing, even in asterisks. It was not individually directed (it was at Arsenal FC) but wont happen again.

                An Arsenal hired scribe can write a tactics piece that does not say that the club’s starting goalkeeper is bad at distribution. It is not 7am or Arseblog. It is Arsenal’s website. They control the message Dont put that out there. The video guy (name escapes me) does some really neat game analyses, without doing down Arsenal players.

                This is emblematic of how the club is being run. And the play is clear and one we’ve seen before. Throw your employee under the bus, then freeze him out. Prediction: Leno is out of the starting XI by the end of September, and the Arteta regime pretty much doesnt care how it does that.

                Arsenal Media (print, web, tv, news conferences, Instagram, twitter, Facebook) has a Chief Editor, and I guess that he reports to Vinai. He should never have approved that copy. The reference to Ederson later on tells me it had Mikel’s fingerprints all over it.

                I’ve never seen anything like that in 20+ years following the club. Arsene was once asked about Xhaka’s tackling, and he gave a mildly critical assessment of it; but I’ve never seen the club generate and publish negative copy against one of its own players.

                How could anyone be OK with this? Im fine with Ramsdale, and him challenging Leno. And Tim explained well how Leno’s contract situation made the purchase necessary. But I wont be surprised of Leno’s recent jitteriness is down to how he’s being handled.

             2. We publish our players’ weakness to the world, then wonder why nobody’s ready to buy them on their inflated wages.

                If Arteta knew Leno’s weakness at distribution, not to mention his ability at handling crosses, why did we let Martinez leave in favour of keeping Leno ?

                Very few decisions the club makes nowadays make any sense, and it saddens me to see fans twisting themselves into pretzels to justify every one of them.

             3. Dr. Gooner, your comment didn’t wind me up. Why would it? It didnt surprise me. And as for not reading it, you responded to my comment, remember?

                It’s plain as day that publishing, on the Arsenal website, something that criticises an aspect of the play of one of its own players was the wrong thing to do. You see no wrong with anything the regime does, ever; which is your right. Support comes in different forms. I prefer give Mikel props when necessary, and criticise him when necessary. Wrong is wrong.

                The more I think about this, the more it adds up. There was criticism of MikEdu for selling Emi and coming for Ramsdale a year later, for what could be 30m. “You got a worse player for more”, some screamed (I mean, Tim explained the thinking, and it made sense, but the critics did what critics do. Im actually sold on Ramsdale, and as I said, I find his reaction to joining Arsenal endearing).

                However the analysis is born of that criticism, I feel. It suggests a management that is insecure — insecure enough to not care if the rationalisation of its purchase decision dumped on another player. How do you think Leno feels that Arsenal — his own club — is telling the world he cant pass out from the back that well?

                Let me give you a media man’s view on how to do tactics reporting. Arsenal’s excellent TV analyst said on the Brentford game video that X attacker outpaced Mari. He did not say “Mari is slow and struggles against fleet-footed defenders.” See the difference?

                Let me repeat… a club does not broadcast to the world, the shortcomings of its players. Please, gooners reading this, dont do that, in public, to someone you work with, or who works for you.

          2. claude is spot-on. you don’t air your dirty laundry. wenger would never have allowed something like that to be posted on the arsenal website.

             1. And Claude it is ok to use appropriate terminology to describe “. “
                😷

             2. Claude, it was definitely personal but I don’t take offense. Certain people frustrate me too and I can’t be everyone’s cup of tea. My advice is if you know my comment is going to wind you up, don’t read it. If you’re open to being swayed, great. If not, no problem, 7 am is big enough that we can co-exist.

                On the whole, I really don’t care if my opinions aren’t popular. They are just opinions, and I definitely don’t expect anyone to agree with me. I say what makes sense to me in any given topic or moment just like everyone else. I’m not here trying to make someone feel bad or upset someone, though sometimes it feels like my opinions are a “trigger” for a few posters. I promise I’m not trying to peeve you off. I’m just being me, and if you don’t like me, fair play and no problem. Sometimes I get peeved too by a post that seems especially toxic or unfair. That’s all part of a free exchange of ideas, and I do my best to take my advice and avoid reading certain posters too closely. I don’t always get it right, but I try. That’s all.

       2. I really don,t know how to explain these things further. The team is so bad that every players quality has been affected and can only look bad. The same can be said for Auba too. We really know the ones who has really stunk from the begining but neither Leno nor Auba should be in that category. What do you expect from a very weak defence huh? Leno ain’t no miracle worker. Against Brentford Xhaka was caught with the ball right in front of Leno and boy did he pull a wonderful save.

          The second goal, he misjudged his positioning probably out of mistrust for his defenders but then again Ben White and Pablo Mari was all over the place.

          Can we stop kindly blaming our Laca, Auba or Leno? Without these guys we wouldn’t even be hitting the mid table.

24. No Europe, just a game a week not counting the domestic cup competitions, an overall healthy team, a manager with (enough) experience now and ownership backing to take us forward.

    NO EXCUSES, no reasons why we can’t push on. Barring some injury crisis (this IS still the Arsenal), or something out of left field (another bout with a new strain of pestilence or something), our goal of Top 4 is achievable.

    Smith Rowe, Saka, Martinelli, Ramsdale, White, Tavares, Logonka, Gabriel and the old man of the group, the scarred, veteran warrior at an ancient 24 years old, Teirney. That’s not just Project Youth III or IV or whatever the hell it is now. This is a superlative collection of young talent, more than capable of taking teams like Chel$ki out to the woodshed. Maybe not on Sunday but soon.

25. Interesting range of opinions.

    What I can say for sure is that it’s an exciting time. The club is DOING something, that we can all agree upon, and the result of the DOING is only going to be revealed with time. Meantime, we can all prognosticate, so I’ll throw my hat in the ring.

    The loss at Brentford seems to have been exaggerated in its gravity, as usual. Losing four players to COVID hours before kickoff is extremely disruptive. But, it’s a results game and we didn’t get a result. You could tell the team was having similar issues to last season in the final 3rd. You could tell we missed a second creative focus. Arteta wasn’t surprised by this and said as much. So, the club acted decisively to secure Odegaard. I think that should be applauded. (DISCLAIMER: This doesn’t mean I think he or the club can do no wrong.)

    Chelsea is a team puffed up with self-importance right now. They just won the world’s most prestigeous competition and secured the signature of a very expensive striker. I don’t watch Serie A much, so this is not an informed opinion, but my gut tells me Lukaku isn’t going to be the unstoppable force he was in that league. I was never that impressed with his ability to take chances or with his mentality during his spell in the PL. When Drogba played for Chelsea, I feared him. When Lukaku played for them, I could care less; in fact, you could count on him to fluff good chances. Maybe he’s improved a lot since then, or maybe he found a niche on a dominant team in a different league. I don’t think he’s a transcendent striker. My prediction is he’s going to score goals but he’s not going to be a difference maker at the highest level. I hope I’m right.

    Arsenal is a bit of a wounded animal right now and Chelsea are already celebrating victory so I wouldn’t be surprised if we got something for the game tomorrow. I don’t think Chelsea’s going to bring their A game and Arsenal will be better than they showed last week.

    As for the season as a whole, the 538 chart shows exactly what we’re up against and I agree with Tim: finishing above any one of Chelsea, Liverpool or Man City would be a massive overachievement. Man United could possibly be had, and passing them is our best chance to sneak into the top 4. I agree the smart money is on 5th, especially if Kane goes to City.

    1. Lukaku is an upgrade on Werner, even if he has some of the same question marks around him. He’s also improved his first touch, and I think he’s figured out who he is and doesn’t feel like he needs to do everything and doesn’t get caught in two minds as much. He also credits Thierry Henry with helping him improve.

       I think he’ll lead the line well for Chelsea and gives them more variety in attack. Apparently, he had some health issue at ManU and couldn’t keep his weight down. Inter diagnosed him and he is much leaner than when he was last in the PL.

       1. the biggest difference between lukaku and werner is that lukaku is a center forward. lampard got that dead wrong, trying to play werner as a 9 and i called it as soon as i heard him say it in an interview. i think it cost him his job as chelsea boss.

          with lukaku leading the line, with werner on the right, and mason mount in the hole, i’m predicting both lukaku and werner will score somewhere close to 20 league goals each this season. the premier league is about to see how good timo werner really is as he’ll be in his best position. if they stay fit, chelsea will probably win the league.

26. claude

    I’m with you on the Arsenal PR stuff and that article on Leno. It’s a continuation of the Raul Sanllehi school of thought on being ‘Ruthless FC’ with everyone except those making the calls.

    I lost patience with Arteta and his constant proclamations of needing to keep the faith some months ago, but even then I felt like he’s a good coach, if a poor manager. But he doesn’t seem that interested in coaching up the players he has and instead wants to go out and buy what he feels is the perfect player for him. I have the feeling he’s just trying to imitate Pep here. In his attitude as much as in his approach to building the squad. I know this is speculative and harsh but I’m not sure Arteta respects the opportunity he’s been given and instead feels like the club and fans should be grateful to him.

    I find it annoying that the club are messaging that buying ’21-23 year olds’ represents some clear plan. What is it a plan of? At best that Kroenke’s club will be able to recover some money in resale value, but even that depends on those guys being good, and being part of a team structure that gives them the opportunity to be good.

    I find it interesting though that we’re quite clearly being told it was Arteta who pushed for Ramsdale. Not the GK coach, not Edu, not some vague scouting recommendation. Arteta, based on video analysis apparently, demanded Ramsdale and the club obliged. (I also find it funny how hard Ornstein was trying to separate the bonus clauses to make it appear a more reasonable deal)

    He has this season to prove his worth. I don’t think he’s going to get sacked regardless of what happens, but if we don’t secure at least EL football by season’s end, then he will be gone. I can’t say I like the guy, but I hope he succeeds and at the very least, has us playing some good football.

    1. shard, i don’t remember the last time you said something that i didn’t wholly agree with. that’s a problem, my friend. this is 7am! we’re supposed to disagree. however, from emery, to raul, to arteta, we’ve been on the same wavelength at the same time. good to have you active on the site and doing well, my friend.

       your post about lukaku is so relevant. i made the point recently that lukaku wasn’t exactly the most clinical center forward in the premier league before. however, that doesn’t matter. what he is that does matter is a competent center forward and that’s something chelsea desperately needed. he’ll still score plenty of goals. make no mistake, they’re going to be a problem. whether he’s become more clinical? we’ll see. lukaku is a dynamite signing for chelsea. if it were up to me, he’d start right away against arsenal.

    2. “I know this is speculative and harsh but I’m not sure Arteta respects the opportunity he’s been given and instead feels like the club and fans should be grateful to him.“

       It sure feels that way to me

27. Yikes. No White. No Bellerin, even on the bench. No Odegaard on the bench. Auba at least made it. And Soares at RB.
    We’re cursed.

    Separately, any of those of you in the US figured out a good option for being able to watch most of the matches without a cable subscription? Some of them seem to be on NBC Sports and some on Peacock, but those are two separate subscriptions, despite being owned by the same company. Argh.

28. Well, that was against the run of play. Great hold-up play from Lukaku.

29. Halftime.

    We played well in spells, but Chelsea showed the difference between having forward cutting edge and not having it. You can have all the possession you want, but every time they went forward they looked as if they could score

    The hold-up, give and go from Lukaku was glorious. Mari weak, and being outplayed by Lukaku. Saka played well, but showed too much to Reece James when put through. Loving the play of Kovacic in the middle, and Harvetz on the left.

    Id take off Martinelli. He’s been absent. If Auba is fit enough for the bench, he’s fit enough for a half.

30. this is all arteta. he’s got the strikers playing way too narrow in defense. it’s as if he want’s them to deny the entry ball into the chelsea centre midfielders. that’s fine, but pepe and saka are over-committing and allowing the ball to easily go to the wide players. it’s because he fixated on the shape of the midfielders and not allowing them the chance to solve the problem. as a result, reece james has a goal and an assist.

    as for lukaku, one of your center mids just comes in and takes the ball off of his foot when he tries to hold it up. it really is that simple. the only way out for lukaku is to either take a negative touch or a good turn. lukaku doesn’t have to do either. this is easy. i’m not a fan of arteta.

31. Not sure what to think at this point. Even if we were at full strength, Chelsea would be favored. We have so many players out, it’s hard to say where we’re at.
    Lokonga looks good. If Partey can ever manage to stay healthy, we might have a good partnership there. Juries out on White and Gabriel, but a healthy Gabriel might have been a better match against Lukaku. And Tavares seems a good deputy to Tierney, and based on his injury record, we need one.
    Still don’t see where the goals are going to come from. The attack looks anemic. There’s a significant possibility we end next weekend not only bottom of the league, but without a goal after 3 matches. Maybe Pep will throw Arteta a bone.

32. We were lightweight. Almost an under-23 team playing a PL team. The coach is tactically naive. We tried to be flamboyant and fell flat on our faces. We go up against CL winners who humbled the guru and then the disciple wants to go toe-to-toe with Chelsea. I cannot fathom what exactly Arteta wants to do with this team. Gabby, Saka, ESR, Lokanga, Tierney are kids still in learning mode. What’s the point of setting up the team in this way? So we can be seen as having tried? Where was the pragmatic attitude from FA cup final?

    Arteta and Edu have shown no class when it comes to player management. Raul before them was the same. Remember how Kos was treated? Then it was Ozil, now Leno and numerous other players. I can’t remember the last time Wenger ever behaved like these guys. Until Kroenkes add football people in the board and hire a first rate Director of Football and a decently experienced manager, we will be stuck in this time warp.

33. Last year’s goalless patch and a winless record was no fluke. We might even beat that this year.

34. Josh

    I don’t think its the tactics, its the quality of the attacking players that is lacking. Who in the line up today did you really expect to score against one of the best defensive teams in Europe? Our best attacking players are Saka, ESR and Pepe. Those are not the type of attacking players that you can build a top 6 team around. Saka has potential to get better in the future but that does not help right now. Everyone got excited when Pepe scored 5 goals in the last 3 games of last season against the bottom teams in the league but he has 2 full seasons of being underwhelming and generally the larger sample size is more predictive of the players real potential. I think Odegaard will be an upgrade over ESR but the chances of him changing everything seem remote at best. In Ozil’s first 3 seasons our goals/season actually went down from 71 per season for the 3 years before he arrive to 68 goals per season in the 3 years after he arrived. Do we really believe Odegaard can improve our ability to score more then Ozil in his prime? We still don’t have anyone who we expect to score. You can blame Arteta for the fact that we have spent a lot of money and not really improved the overall quality of our attacking players but a manager can’t perform tactical miracles and turn a group of players who were clearly outmatched talent wise today into an effective attacking team.

    1. Sorry Bill,

       A manager can make a huge difference. Maybe not at the same level as what Tuchel did with Lampard’s team but definitely a manager CAN make a team play better than it’s parts. Today, Arteta tried bravado instead of pragmatism. He should have done this at Brentford where we were timid. This team is more or less what Arteta wants. He has chosen most of these players. He knows their strengths. He knew Auba was not ready for full game. He knew Saka is still recovering from Euro 2020. He knew Lukaku will bully us. He could have had Chambers as a CB instead of Mari. He could have played 3 at the back. He could have set us up as a counterattacking team. What’s the shame in that? Didn’t Chelsea do the same in CL final?

       But no, 1st match in front of fans and of course he didn’t want to be seen as playing defensive football. So we went all in and got spanked. Our mediocre manager makes our average players worse due to his tactics.

    2. Tactics and organisation certainly help, Bill. Chelsea were obviously the better side, but we let in two goals primarily because Arsenal didn’t feel it necessary to track back with their 24, Reece James, who had so much space on that side of the pitch, it was actually embarrassing. So getting tight on him and denying him space, would have at least stopped those two goals. At nil nil anything can still happen.
       The simple fact is that Chelsea have more talent than virtually every other team in Europe, let alone the Premier League, so what are we meant to do? Give up?
       No, we do what other teams do against us. Make life just a bit more difficult for them. That involves planning, strategy, tactics and the ability of players to carry out instructions. What we’re seeing is Arsenal unable to do even that.

35. Get Conte on the phone

36. Aresenal : 37% possession. 6 shots with 3 on target. Chelsea had 22 shots. Yet we couldn’t set up for counter attacks. Our pressing was hilarious and depressing at the same time. We can’t decide how we want to play. Moves fizzled out when our crosses kept getting blocked. Is that all we can do these days? Can someone please list for me the positives in our play under Arteta. And can someone tell me what is his playing philosophy?

37. Losing to this Chelsea side isn’t an unexpected result. Perspective. Hold strain, gooners. The real pain point was losing to Brentford on opening day. Yes, we had key players struck down by COVID; but we should have had a depth of squad to see off Brentford. If you’re Mikel, youre looking at the first 3 games and saying 3 points in 3 wold be a decent return. That game was so, so important. It was our cup final. We looked surprised by their tactics, which suggested inadequate preparation. That’s what’s hurting us today, not losing to Tuchel’s excellent team.

    I dont think that Mikel has as long as Shard says he has, but 0 points 0 goals and bottom of the table after 3 games (as is likely) won’t and shouldn’t be determinative. September and October will be defining months for him.

    Let’s be clear about something… William Saliba is much better central midfielder than Pablo Mari, an ArtEdu purchase. Two games in in the EPL and Ligue 1, that much is clear. Shard makes a good point about wanting to perfect player (according to his perfect vision), and not being prepared to coach was he has. It’s what led him to buy a central defender an inch under 6 feet tall, for 50m. Yes, he can play on the carpet, but this is the premier league. As Josh said, defending is your first job. That said, credit to them for getting it right on Sambi and Tavares. They look two really good, athletic players and good buys.

    Bill talks about players who know how to score (and wrt today I agree), but we just sold one. Id have liked to see Joe thrown in alongside Sambi to run at Chelsea. Would subbing Xhaka for Joe at 2-0 have made us worse off? Whatever Willock’s current shortcomings, he just turned 22. A coach nurtures the player’s attributes and tries to round him out.

    btw, did you see Emile’s take and turn under pressure in his own half in the 83rd? What a gem.

    1. **correction: William Saliba is a much better central defender,,,,

    2. Losing is fine, the way that we were disorganized and easily cast aside in the first 30 minutes is not fine. Perspective.

38. Tuned in to Nice-Marseilles to watch Saliba (still ours) and Guendouzi, and the match had been suspended deep in 2nd half. Ugly scenes. Bottles thrown, Dmitri Payet threw one back, pitch invasion, Guendouzi vocal and animated (surprise). Looks like someone is injured….

    Fracas still going on.

39. SG Gooner @ 10:55AM..

    A manager can make a difference but he can’t work miracles. There is no manager who can take a mid table level squad of attacking players and make them look good against arguably one of the best defensive teams in Europe. That is just not going to happen. I suspect we would have tried to counterattack if we could have but we don’t have any players who are good at scoring goals. If we had played 3 at the back a lot of fans would have screamed bloody murder saying that we were overly defensive and timid. The idea that Chambers at CB might have made a difference is easy to say in retrospect but the realistically I can’t believe it would have changed anything.

    Claude. Against Brentford conceding 2 goals is really bad and not excusable. However from an overall tactical standpoint we easily outplayed them. We controlled the game and had 65% of the ball possession and out shot them 22-8. Just like last year Over the course of the season I am sure we will have a few good games where we score a bunch of goals against the poorer defensive teams but we will always struggle to find goals against better defensive teams. The problem in the Brentford game is we didn’t have anyone who turn the ball possession and shots into actually goals scored. Which player on the pitch that day did you actually expect to score? I know that preseason games don’t count in the standing but so far we have played 6 games including the 4 preseason games and we have scored 4 goals. Auba, Laca and Pepe were all available for most of those games and none of them has scored a single goal so far. It could be a very long year with a lot of games where we get shut out.

    1. Can you name the players who are mid table players? Saka is in English National team, ESR is as talented as Saka, Auba is a World Class goal getter, Xhaka is a clalmity but an experienced one. Look at our eleven and tell us who really is a mid-table player out there.

40. It will be interesting to see how many goals Willock scores this season. I understand that having him could have given us another option when we need to score a goal. I am highly skeptical that he will ever come close to replicating what he did last year and I suspect his transfer value would have decreased significantly if we had kept him and used him in the impact sub role. I will admit my mistake and Arsenal will have made a big mistake if he does score > 10 league goals this season. With that said I would definitely bet the under if the projected league goals this season with Newcastle is set at 7.5.

    1. Bill, so Joe Willock is the one exception to your oft-made argument about Arsenal needing goalscorers, goalscorers, goalscorers. And goals goals goals.

       Youre guessing that late season 20/21 form is unsustainable. You may be right… it may be a never to be repeated hot streak. But 3 things: (1) we wouldnt have needed him to score at that rate to add value and goal threat. He was always going to regress to the mean (2) we wont know that for several years, and the team’s need is now (3) we played Chelsea in pre-season not that long ago, and Willock scored a goal that wasn’t given.

       I dont mean to keep banging on about a player who isnt ours anymore, but Im puzzled by the contradiction in your oft-made argument.

    2. If you have really watched Willocks game you will understand why everyone sees him as a goal getter. He plays more like Aaron and tries to move into spaces where he can create a short for himself. He is also a very good jumper and can head a ball. Half of the time I watched him in Arsenal he was always at the end of crosses and the only difference was that most of his shorts were not going into the back of the net. He is movement player with the goal at the back of his mind.

41. Was definitely a depressing match to watch and a worst result to swallow.

    Mari got swapped like a fly in the built up for the first goal. It would have been hilarious if I had not been a gooner. Although kudos to him for recovering decently for the rest of the match.

    The fact that Arsenal allowed Recce James to be such a game changer in the match is criminal! How on earth is he allowed that much space not once but twice in the match! Tierney and Saka, golden boys they were guilty. As was the rest of the defence that crumbled.

    Sadly Chelski looked really slick in their passing. The blues were excellent, Kovacic and Jorginho dictating and recycling possession; Chelsea’s back three sweeping up everything, including the kitchen sink we threw at them, and even a rejuvenated Alonso bamboozling past our non existent defence with some deft touches, flicks and passes.

    While Chelsea has an embarrassing amount of riches, the turnaround that Tuchel has managed to inspire should be what our beleaguered manager should aspire to be.

    Sigh, it’s gonna be such a long dreary season …

    1. Shawn, it is what it is. I was very impressed by Lokonga and the balance we had defensively when Tavares came on but I bet that might be because Martinelli stayed wider defensively something Saka refused to do.

       The question I really want to pose is what is the point of playing Lokonga and Xhaka in the same game. Over the last to matches, Xhaka gives us nothing and don’t tell me he can throw a pass. Did you see the long and short range passes Lokonga did yesterday?

       We literally need Torreira in the team. The last balanced midfielder we had was when we paired Coquelin at the base of the midfield with Cazorla. All Francis had to do was retrieve the ball and give it back to people who could do magic with it. It was one of our best midfield combo better than Fab and that guy that went to AC Milan on a free.

       We need a ball retriever whose sole role is to cut out attacks and win ball back.

       1. Ditto on Lokonga, he looks a gem based on the first two games. He had a few defence splitting passes, cross field passes that really caught the eye! Hopefully he packs on some muscles and starts bossing the centre of the pitch.

          Who knows, maybe xhaka is surplus to our midfield once we can get the “Partey” started.

          Not too sure about Torreira though. As Tim had expounded, he for some reasons is simply too lightweight to be effective. Makes me wonder what makes Kante so strong in spite of his “hobbit” built.

42. arteta has been the club manager for 19 months. who can say how arteta has made arsenal better? even after the club has given him a ton of money for transfers, he still hasn’t made arsenal better. an argument could be made that he’s made the team worse.

    i’m talking about the performances, not just the result. when you watch arsenal play this season, do they look prepared? do they look like a group that knows what they’re trying to do as a team? to me, they look like a talented group of individuals that are doing their best to win but are all pulling in different directions. they look like a group of guys that have a test they didn’t study for while arteta’s on the sideline trying to yell the answers to the test. arteta is not suited for the job he has.

    1. We’re looking so much lesser than the sum of all our available “Arsenal”. I wonder if Conte is available or even remotely interested in our wreck job.

    2. Hah! We certainly do agree a lot these days.

       My thought while watching the game yesterday was that the only times we look like we’d make something good happen is when all structure breaks down and it’s like two boxers just throwing punches. We started with a good attitude and the goal came against the run of play, but it didn’t surprise me, and I don’t think we ever really troubled Chelsea much. Which was expected.

       What was not expected, despite my low expectations of him, was Arteta’s post match interview. That made me mad. He’s writing games off in his effort to make excuses for himself. It did surprise me though to hear boos at full time. I honestly did not expect the crowd to react that way so early in the season. Maybe Arteta could be out sooner than I dared hope. In typical Arteta fashion he denied that reaction ever occurred.

       1. A couple of things I’d add as I’m not sure international match coverage captures everything we get to see here. There were plenty of boos at half time. By full time a large portion of fans had already left. I’ve seen several people express surprise at the number of empty seats. The Sky match summariser said that after the whistle at least five fans told him to make sure he shared their unhappiness with Arteta. And I later read that a couple of fans waited for Arteta fter the game and let him kmow their feelings. He knows he’s up against it, just putting a brave public face on it.

43. What staggered me about the Chelsea game was the acres of space they gave Reece James. Who was meant to pick him up? Tierney kept getting sucked into the middle. In the end he was playing like a 3rd centre back.
    Xhaka? Nope.
    Saka? Nope.
    It was quite obvious that our set up hadn’t accounted for their number 24, who had the freedom of the Emirates.
    What was even more incredible, was that nothing changed! Having watched James lay on the goal for Lukaku, we then had to witness him dance through our left hand side and score an individual goal.
    Still nothing changed!
    What game was Arteta watching?
    He could have pulled Saka back to play as a wingback, or even subbed him off and brought on Tavares.
    Chelsea were much the better side, but simply tracking back with their right wing back, might have at least kept us in the game.
    If we are losing at half time, then you can bet your mortgage that we won’t come back in the 2nd half to grab a result. I haven’t got the stats, but I wouldn’t mind betting that that never ever happens.

    1. i don’t know what arteta’s strategy was but it looked like it should have been saka tracking reece james. let me explain.

       both goals happened when chelsea switched the point of attack with intelligent out balls to reece james. tactically, i teach strikers to straddle the fence with their positioning when the ball is on the opposite side of the field. that means you pinch in horizontally and take up a vertical position that allows you to get back if you need to defend but allows you to get forward if you need to participate in a counter. it’s on the player to read the game and do what his abilities allow. when in doubt, he needs to err on the side of safety.

       here’s a simple question. look at saka’s position before both goals when chelsea are clearly in possession and ask “how is that position affecting the play or helping arsenal win the ball back?” bottom line, when chelsea switch the point, saka is behind the play every time. there’s absolutely no scenario where james should get behind saka. on the second goal, saka is nearly at midfield while the ball is in the arsenal final third and on the opposite side of the pitch. what’s he doing? how is that position helping the team defend? there’s no chelsea player for him to defend up at midfield. the ball is in the final third and so is reece james…unmarked! why was he so high up the pitch?

       is that poor tactics from a young hot shot who has developed a bit of an ego now that he’s in the england team or is it a poor strategy from his novice manager? understand, i’m not damning saka. he had arsenal’s only legit shot on target i can remember and was denied a stonewall penalty. however, something isn’t right.

       1. So, in a nutshell, it should have been down to Saka? That sounds about right. I don’t recall him doing much defensively. Apart from anything else, he didn’t look match fit. Why would you go into a game against the European champions with a player that wasn’t ready? There was an alternative, Tavares, who has looked pretty good in pre season and has the advantage of being quick.
          Also where is the leadership? If Saka wasn’t fulfilling his defensive duties, why on earth wasn’t Tierney, Xhaka and most importantly Arteta screaming blue murder at him? Would he have got away with that with Winterburn, Adams and George Graham? You must be joking! His ears would have been burning. At half time, he would have been slaughtered in the dressing room. And that’s a large part of the problem. Very little accountability. No one taking any sort of responsibility when things are quite clearly wrong.

          1. Yes, I think Saka is to blame for a lot of the wide pace, though I have seen at least one piece suggest that this was part of Arteta’s game plan: the wide forwards were supposed to press high and centrally.

             And I also agree that Saka looks about 80% fit. Martinelli looks about 30% fit.

             1. The game plan immediately falls apart once James pushes forward, which he likes to do to great effect. We all know that. Chelsea have the ability to play through most presses. Arteta must have seen it wasn’t working. Why didn’t he change his game plan? Hardly rocket science.
                I’ve also watched games where Xhaka fills in at left back, when Tierney bombs forward. There’s any number of alternatives.
                Don’t the alarm bells ring?
                I’m reminded of the story, which may or may not be true, of when Tony Adams literally pinned Andres Limpar up against the dressing room wall for not tracking back and pulling out of tackles. The Liverpool and United dressing rooms around that time were equally fierce. Would you want to upset Souness and Keane?

44. i think it’s plain to see how important good center forward play is. lukaku was a bully but, more importantly, he provided chelsea with good center forward play. i hope it’s equally plain to see how important lacazette is to the arsenal attack. no one on the roster can do what he does…and he’s in the last year of his contract. it’s disgraceful how arsenal has a manager who lacks the nous to cope with the absence of this player.

    the team has a game against west brom on wednesday and those guys are unbeaten in the championship, looking like they’ll come right back up to the premier league next season. the way both teams are playing, arsenal could very easily lose that game. will arteta have a sound enough strategy to get the win? there are a lot of very young guys who didn’t know how to get the job done in the first two games so they’ll need a good game plan. we’ll see.

45. Claude. You point that my view of Willock seems like a double standard compared to my other comments about needing goal scorers is certainly valid and a fair criticism. I strive to be consistent in my views and I am certainly not doing that in this case. Your view that he could have been another option to change the way we play when we are behind is a very reasonable idea and a valid point. I just have a feeling that last season was a complete outlier and if we had kept him we would have regretted not selling him when we had the chance sort of like what happened with AMN. If I am wrong then I will admit my mistake.

    Josh

    I would imagine Arteta was not very happy with the way the team defended our left flank. He has to know that we were going to struggle to score and we had to prevent them from scoring if we wanted to have any chance at all. The fact that we have conceded 11 goals so far this season if you count the preseason games is a real concern and the fact that we have only scored 4 so far is also a huge concern. I don’t think there is a lot we can do to score more with this current squad and given the difficulty we have in scoring we need to be very good on the defensive end.. Conceding 2 goals a game has to change quickly if we want to have any chance to finish in the top 6 this season.

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