Arsenal

[Art Vandelay]

We’ve looked absolutely horrible in pre-season. 

[Art Vandelay]

I see Newcastle have put to bed any Willock debate. Seems cheap to me, especially as that’s only 2/3 of the price of the shit keeper we’re looking to buy.

What a dispiriting summer. If Edu ever comes back from his jollies he’s got so much to do it’s unreal. I just don’t understand how we can talk about progression when it feels like we’ve got basically the same team we did from about five years ago, and they still play like they’ve only just met. Whatever anyone thinks of Neves, Maddison or anyone else we’re linked with at the moment, none of them are signals of intent of anything. They’re just easy obvious signings where you keep increasing your offer until you meet the price you were quoted a month before. When you think about the signings and contracts we’ve done in the last couple of years it could make a grown man weep.

[hauk]

Willock to Newcastle for $20+ million is just Martinez all over again. He’s way down the list of players we should be selling and we’ll regret it when he starts banging goals in regularly.

[Art Vandelay]

The thing with Willock though is I have no idea if he’ll become a guaranteed starter who’ll regularly score goals for us, I suspect he will but that’s speculation. What we all know for sure however is exactly what the players we have left will offer because they’ve underwhelmed for years. As a fan I’d rather we took the gamble. We’ve made such a mistake getting a manager who is so tactically inflexible that if you don’t fit the level of specificity required then you’re out the door.

 

Whilst I’m banging that drum, this move shows what an amateur Edu is too. Willock is the victim because we’re incapable of moving on anyone difficult so we’ve had to sell the one player a club is publicly pleading to spend money on, and even then we’ve sold for a poor fee. Edu should have gone with Raul as he shown us nothing to suggest he’s up to it. I honestly can’t believe how much this club still pisses me off.

[Gotters]

Dunno about Willock, my feeling is that was a freak run and he won't score that many all next season but when you see what Liverpool & Chelsea squeeze out of clubs for their tat that never gets on the pitch in the PL the fee looks very low. 

[suzzopher]

Starting to feel that we need to replace Auba now, not in a year’s time. We’ve not addressed our inability to score goals outside of a few players. We couldn’t replace Aubameyang’s goals last season when he was out of form either. 

I’m starting to worry that 8th might be a little ambitious this season.

[Art Vandelay]

He's a bit of a victim of the way we play I reckon, plus I wonder if we're seeing a physical drop off. When he's not scoring he's always been a passenger, but it's so pronounced at the moment it's quite sad to watch. We're sort of trying to play like Pep and striving for a day where we don't start with a 9, which is why Lacazette is mostly seen busily working away as a deep 10 as we spend 3 minutes working the ball to the flanks and eventually dinking it into no-one. There's so much wrong with that plan it's not worth going in to really, but the main problem is that it involves so many players in square peg positions we can't get it to work. Again, the rigidity is absolutely killing us.

 

I sound like a right grump about it, but I agree. I think 8-12 is realistic. Top four is a complete fantasy.

[Gotters]

We've all forgotten that second half of the season only City accumulated more points than us somehow - but that was down to everybody being shite than us any good. 

[Rocafella]

Will be really interesting to see how the team and Arteta cope with the crowd back.

 

I don't think they're going to wait long before making their feelings heard, especially if the window closes with little transfer movement.

[Rocafella]

And by the above, I mean with Arteta's stale, cagey, horse-shoe football. Think the fans will encourage more urgency than we get from the team (which is very little) which I actually think could be a good thing.

[bear]

9 hours ago, Gotters said:

We've all forgotten that second half of the season only City accumulated more points than us somehow - but that was down to everybody being shite than us any good. 

 

 

Where's that stat from?

 

If you set the whoscored.com custom table thing to start at the 25th of January and run to the end of the season Chelsea got 38 points from 19 games, Liverpool got 35 from 19 and Arsenal got 34 from 19. 

[Gotters]

12 hours ago, bear said:

 

 

Where's that stat from?

 

If you set the whoscored.com custom table thing to start at the 25th of January and run to the end of the season Chelsea got 38 points from 19 games, Liverpool got 35 from 19 and Arsenal got 34 from 19. 

 

this almost backs it up, 3rd behind Chelsea and City for second half of season - general point is ended the season relatively strongly compared to most teams.

 

[Gotters]

its worth reposting this as what are they smoking at London Colney to think you pay £30m+ for this player in this climate

 

 

[Art Vandelay]

I guess it's not my money, but with players like him and the ones we've bought already they don't improve our first 11 so it's hard to get excited. I think clubs are just searching for safe places to put their money, like when investors panic and buy a load of gold or whatever it is they do. We made a big mistake when we kept our fabled war chest sealed shut all those years when other clubs made a killing on player immortalisation, so maybe they've seen young English players as a shrewd investment? That is literally the only reason I can see to spend £80m on two players who are unlikely to amass 20 career England caps between them.

[suzzopher]

Not only do these player not improve our first 11, I'd argue they are hardly an upgrade on what we started last season with as a squad. 

 

 

[Art Vandelay]

I think in fairness Tavares is an upgrade auxiliary left back by virtue of actually existing. 

[suzzopher]

Aye, you're right there. 

[KRP]

On 11/08/2021 at 15:22, Gotters said:

its worth reposting this as what are they smoking at London Colney to think you pay £30m+ for this player in this climate

 

 

I think this is a bit unfair, I would never say one player was responsible for the teams overall performance - particularly a keeper. 

 

On the subject of getting a new keeper I would rather we get another Matt Ryan-alike and use the rest of the money for outfield players.

[Gotters]

5 minutes ago, KRP said:

I think this is a bit unfair, I would never say one player was responsible for the teams overall performance - particularly a keeper. 

 

On the subject of getting a new keeper I would rather we get another Matt Ryan-alike and use the rest of the money for outfield players.

Of course, he’s not directly or solely responsible but you don’t look at the level of football he’s played and his performances in losing most weeks and think ‘there is a £30-35m star man we have to get’

 

It hard to fathom paying that much for somebody who has clearly been playing in very bad teams and must carry some burden himself from that.

[footle]

22 minutes ago, Gotters said:

P

 

It hard to fathom paying that much for somebody who has clearly been playing in very bad teams and must carry some burden himself from that.

It means he’s psychologically ready to play for The Arsenal?

[suzzopher]

Looks like Balogun will have to start tonight up top as Auba, Laca, Eddie and Martinelli are not available. Knowing Arteta, he'll start Holding as a false 9.

[Silent Runner]

Willians time to shine. 

[Lucky]

Could be

Leno, Chambers, Mari, White, Tierney, Xhaka, Lokonga, Saka, ESR, Pepe, Martinelli or Balogun

 

Still a decent 11

The bench is going to be horrendous though

 

 

[SeanR]

Might get tickets for Norwich. Chelsea is available, but waaaaaay expensive (cat A)

[Plissken]

21 hours ago, Gotters said:

It hard to fathom paying that much for somebody who has clearly been playing in very bad teams and must carry some burden himself from that.

 

Just to point out that we got Tom Heaton on a free from a relegated Bristol City and three years later paid relegated Charlton £1m for Nick Pope.  

[Gotters]

7 minutes ago, Plissken said:

 

Just to point out that we got Tom Heaton on a free from a relegated Bristol City and three years later paid relegated Charlton £1m for Nick Pope.  

 

You do notice the absence of £30m+ from either of those 'worth a punt' signings.

 

£30m is not an amount most clubs can afford to flush down the loo. 

[Art Vandelay]

Word is Willian starts as a false 9. Hello darkness my old friend.

[Gabe]

I thought these days he was a false footballer. 

[Gotters]

if he hasn't shed that pre-season friendly timber it will hark back to the days of Jan Molby or Micky Quinn

 

didn't he get a hattrick of assists against Fulham in the opener last season - everybody rushed him into their fantasy team and it looked like a shrewd bit of business. long time a year. 

[Silent Runner]

Leno, Chambers, White, Pablo Mari, Tierney, Sambi Lokonga, Xhaka, Pepe, Smith-Rowe, Martinelli, Balogun

 

Saka not starting but otherwise that's a decent team plus Xhaka.