I’m back from a week-and-a-half sunning myself and whilst I haven’t bothered picking up the proverbial internet online quill to pen some thoughts, I’ve been following all the bits and bobs that have been happening in the Arsenal and football world over the last week or so. As expected, most of it was relatively quiet post-Premier League season ended, with a few transfer stories emerging about Sesko and a couple of others, but nothing that was so credible and large enough that warranted me firing up the laptop.

Until yesterday of course, in which man City decided to through the biggest hissy fit a Premier League club has ever thrown, albeit there has been nothing officially confirmed by Man City themselves. Instead it was Matt Lawton from The Times who dropped the ‘end game’ that City are looking to deliver to the Premier League following last year’s 155 charges stuff last February.

As a reminder – ‘Last February’ – i.e. just under 16 months ago, when they were charged with 115 counts of breaking the rules.

So what do you do if you as a club have been pulled up on so many offences? You make a counter offensive. That counter offensive has clearly been for the City Group and their owners to work hard on finding something – anything – that could render the Premier League’s charges irrelevant.

When the CAS stuff happened a couple of year’s ago by UEFA, their tactic was to essentially (and I’m super paraphrasing here because a – I’m not an expert, and b – I don’t particularly want to write 1,000 words on the details of that situation. There’s people far better qualified than me if you Google it that can go through the details of that case, as well as the 115 charges stuff) state that the charges that had been laid against them happened so long ago that they were not relevant any more and they won their case on a technicality. They weren’t ‘cleared’, they just couldn’t be punished, in the end.

That ‘get out of jail’ card couldn’t be used this time (again, see above brackets for why I won’t go in to that in detail), so they had to invent up a new angle on how to get away with it. And now we know what it is, which is essentially:

“The rules were wrong in the first place”

It’s honestly a level of arrogance the likes of which no club has ever risen itself too. Manchester City are saying that the rules they signed up to, the rules they agreed to in becoming part of the Premier League collective of teams to compete, the rules in which sporting integrity are supposed to be designed around, aren’t ‘fair’ to them. They have apparently used words like “the tyranny of the majority” to describe their attempt to sue the Premier League because of it’s majority rule approach; in a quite frankly amazing attack on what is essentially democracy in football. Essentially they should be able to do what they like and spend what they like because they have the money and others don’t. They should be able to over-inflate sponsorship deals because they can (that’s what the whole ‘associated party transaction’ stuff that you might have seen in the media in the last 24 hours is) and everyone else should just accept it.

It’s crass, it’s disgraceful, it’s an attempt to subjugate the Premier League in to dropping charges because of the money and power that the City Group wield and, if successful, it would essentially mean that sporting integrity is dead. It would open the floodgates for state ownership and turn the Premier League in to a shell of a competition, where football clubs become expensive dick-swinging exercises by excessively rich people/countries try to sports-wash their way into society.

Let’s remind ourselves about the Super League for a second on this, because I think it’s relevant, because that was an example of fans coming together to fight against something that was wrong, and the perspective was pretty unanimous in rejecting the idea. So much so that the clubs that all went public with the announcement, not only had rival fans up in arms against them, but their own fans, the Premier League, UEFA, as well as the broadcasters (obviously) all come together to fight what was an attempt to remove competition and sporting integrity from the game we love. Having a closed shop where no promotion and relegation exists, where teams can just spend higher and higher amounts of cash and rake in more and more, where the fans would have eventually have suffered, would have been shameful. So it fell down and died and I think most people suggested it was a win for football and competitive sport.

By showing their hands here, Man City have done exactly what the Super League tried to do; they want to see sporting integrity eroded by essentially saying the ‘haves’ must be able to do what they want.

The suggestions from The Times article are also that City have had the temerity to suggest that they would need to scale back on women’s football, youth development and fan ticket prices, were they not allowed to do this, in a completely and utterly bizarre attempt to wedge some sort of moral trump card into their argument. It’s laughable.

They have been backed in to a corner and they are lashing out by launching something so audacious that it almost sounds like an April Fool’s joke. The Premier League have to fight this. Football has to fight this. Everyone needs to come together to fight this. We all derided the Super League, I wrote against my own club in rejecting it, but unless this situation resolves itself in a way in which City fail in this desperation attempt and are now most certainly punished with their charges, then the game we all know might be gone and dead. I don’t even think that is overly dramatic. We all know football is a sport dominated by money, but at least there are rules in place designed to keep a somewhat competitive nature to the spending, to try to avoid the Premier League clubs becoming playthings.

This has to be stopped and there needs to be a universal campaign to counter what City are doing. From everyone.

Sorry, not a lot about The Arsenal today, but when a story this big comes along that threatens to change the game as we know it, you kind of have to talk about it.

I’ll be looking to do an Arsenal-related podcast tonight as part of our ‘one in, one out, one bangs’ series that we did last summer on the Same Old Arsenal pod. Come and join us at 8.30pm and hopefully it’ll be a bit more on Arsenal, although I’m sure we’ll talk about this too at the start, if only for a little bit. Link here if you want to pop along.

Back tomorrow with more Arsenal-related stuff. See you then.

His numbers prove that too. In 2019/20 he got four goals and 12 assists in 38 games in all competitions. 2020/21 he improved his end product numbers by hitting 17 goals and assists in all competitions. Last season it was 19 goals and assist and this season, with 10 games still left to play, he has 23 goals and assists. I say ‘all competitions’, but I’m of course talking about The Arsenal and not England. For England the ratio is just as impressive, with four goals and two assists in his last seven games. He’s already a superstar and we are lucky enough to have him.

What I love about him is that he isn’t a ‘flashy’ player. He isn’t a dribble merchant who beats five players with eight step overs. He is efficient. If he needs to pick a simple pass, he’ll do it and if he needs to drive at a player to commit them, he’ll do that too. He is equally happy going on the outside as much as cutting in and his versatility means that he’s played left back, midfield, as well as right midfield and I think right wing back at some stage. There’s a reason we all call him Starboy. It  is because he is a star. At 21 years of age.

Twenty-one.

Let that sink in.

The slightly frustrating part about yesterday was that he played the full 90 minutes, but he seemed to get through that ok and if you’re going to look for an up side, it is that he now has six days of rest and training before we play Leeds. That is also true to Ramsdale who didn’t get on the pitch yesterday, but who has done his international duty for now, as has Zinchenko who also played in that match. Which means we have seven of our best starting XI who I believe are now looking good to play unless there is a training ground knock: Ramsdale, White, Gabriel, Zinchenko, Saka, Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus, with Saliba as a question mark because of his back. If he is fit then eight from 11 are hopefully good to go.

Tonight we will hopefully – fingers crossed – get confirmation that Kiwior and Partey are ok and whilst only one of them makes the first team XI, it means we wait on just Xhaka and Odegaard if Partey gets through unscathed against Angola. This is crunch time people; Partey and Odegaard are two of the most important players in our team so losing one of them would be a blow. Partey for his deep-lying, progressive passing, midfield screening, play. Odegaard for the way he meshes everything in the middle and final third together. We need both to be fine and although Odegaard and Xhaka aren’t on until tomorrow, at least by this time tomorrow we’ll know if one of that to is back and raring to go. If any of the Angolan national team coaching staff happen to be Arsenal fans that consume a lot of online Arsenal content and are reading this, can I implore you to instruct your boys to leave Thomas alone on the pitch for the duration of his time there?

So what else is happening in the world of The Arsenal? Not a lot, really, which is absolutely fine when you consider that lot up the road and the turmoil they appear to be in. They’re still fighting for a Champions League place but Levy has unfortunately pulled the trigger on the destruction that Conte has left in the aftermath of his bizarre rant post the Southampton game. That’s a shame, because as Arsenal fans we were quite enjoying this, to be honest. After their chirping of last season, after pipping us to top four and proclaiming that ‘this was it’ in terms of the two trajectories of both North London sides, after pundit-after-pundit declared that the Scum had the upper hand with their manager and they had subsequently “won the transfer window” in August 2022, they have sacked Conte with immediate effect. This was meant to be ‘the one’; the guy that finally brings a trophy when in reality it has turned out to be pretty deliciously frustrating for them all. The football was dreadful, the signings last summer were weird (in my opinion), he crowed a little too much last season when they pipped a decimated Arsenal team to fourth, then this season they have been fortunate enough to have Harry Kane holding them up to fourth spot right now. Hopefully one of Liverpool or Newcastle can pip them to that fourth spot this season to just finish off a wonderful season for them. I’m just hoping that they don’t get Nagelsmann. He’s a good coach, I like him, given how they’ve churned out coaches with big reputations, I just hope he isn’t tempted…

And that’s about all I’ll say about them today I think. Last night James and I had a chat about the current loans that we’ve got and whether we think they should be sold, brought back in to the first team or sold again. It was an interesting debate and you can have a watch here if you’re that way inclined. I personally thought the conversation we had about potentially cashing in on some of those loans was interesting; I don’t think we were over the top on some of our valuations of those players we don’t think are coming back and if we get the kind of conservative figures that we speculated on in the summer for thee players, then we could be looking at a solid £60million+ coming in to the coffers. When you then start thinking about what a Declan Rice would cost you, then it starts to feel very real and achievable given that we – hopefully – will have Champions League football next season.

Right, that’s me done for today. Have a good one, enjoy your Monday, then let the countdown to proper football next weekend, begin.

Laters peeps.

I reckon I’ve been pretty clear on my feelings about FIFA, but just to reiterate: The global footballing governing body are a morality cesspit of corruption and self-serving fat cats who should be allowed nowhere near the running of the game. It is presided over by a despot in Infantino who instead of revolutionising a corrupt institution built on back handers and ill-gotten gains, has settled nicely in to the position vacated by Blatter all those years ago and made himself more than comfortable.

His bizarre opening statements at the beginning of the World Cup in Qatar set the scene for a man at the top of an organisation so tone deaf to the rest of the footballing world, that this idea of a World Club Cup and the fact it was announced just as this questionable tournament came to an end, should probably come as no surprise to us all.

FIFA is an organisation built and maintained on the need to line its own pockets and this World Club Cup competition is the most brazen example of demonstrating that, that I have ever seen. The rise in the popularity and revenues generated by UEFA for the Champions League has long been something that FIFA has coveted. They have seen how club football has overtaken its international product in the last 20 years and they have watched from over the fence, like a kid who has seen his next door neighbour get a shiny red remote control car, where all they got was clothes for Christmas. They have long been in their halls of power in Switzerland trying to conjure up ways in which they can take that coin away from other clubs and here is their answer: Let’s create a bigger World Club Cup to play. It’ll have more teams, we’ll get more revenues, we’ll line our pockets even further.

This announcement from FIFA is the most transparent move of attempted palm-greasing that we are ever going to see.

Do you know what it reminds me of? The attempted Super League formation. That was a play by the world’s richest clubs to get richer, create a closed shop, protect their existing revenues and actually, grow them substantially instead. That failed because of unanimous rejection from the footballing community. Even the likes of FIFA stepped up as if they were some kind of bastion of righteousness, to condemn the proposed formation. Yet here they are, trying to fashion their own land grab at another variation of a global Super League, because I’m sure in their minds it is better that they can do it and profit from the revenue than any of the other clubs or confederations.

My only hope is that FIFA don’t use the promise of the all-mighty coin to the clubs to take part and that those clubs don’t accept. My hope is that this is met with the same derision that the Super League was. My hope is that this idea doesn’t even get in to proper planning phases, because right now there are so many questions around the logistics of it that just haven’t bothered to be answered. When will it run? For how long? Who decides who goes in it? What do you get from it? How is this looking after player welfare by shoehorning yet more games? None of this has been answered by FIFA. Probably because they don’t care; a big sponsor has probably already come to them and offered them a nice big pot of cash and told FIFA to work out the details after they’ve taken the money. That’s how that corrupt footballing body work so I’d expect nothing less than to learn that this is how this decision has been made.

FIFA is not ‘for the good of the game’. It is not an entity that is fit for purpose and it certainly shouldn’t be given the power to set the rules of engagement when it comes to football. There needs to be a universal rejection of this World Club Cup competition, then after that there needs to be a rejection of FIFA as an entity. I have no idea how that would happen, how an alternative could be formed and set up, as I’m just a simple football fan, but the actions of FIFA – now just brazenly demonstrating what they are all about in broad daylight to us all, should show us that root and branch change should happen in our global game. But quite how that happens or how quickly it could happen, I’m not sure.

Bit of a ranty one today, but I just wanted to get that off my chest and do it whilst it’s a little quiet on the proper football side. The sooner we can get back to domestic football and the Premier League, the better, because I’m done with FIFA and this World Cup period.

Catch you lovely people tomorrow. Have a good one.

I remember being at Uni in 2002 and watching the World Cup every day. It was a bit of a pain in the arse because it was on during the mornings, but I recall thoroughly enjoying getting up and drinking Snake Bite and Black at 7am in the student union bar with my mates. In 98 for France I was at school and so I couldn’t really watch all of the games, but in 2002 I was able to come and go as I pleased, so there were a fair few lectures missed for things like Paraguay versus Slovenia, for example. Well, if that is the option above Management Science, what is a boy to do but to go with his footballing gut?

Since I’ve entered the working world it has been a bit of an up and down situation. I’ve been in the world of work for 19 years now and in that time there has been four World Cups that have gone on whilst I’ve been working. In the ‘old days’ you’d just have to miss the games, but in recent years and thankfully with the flexibility I have in my current role, I can have the TV on in the background to catch parts of the games. But it still doesn’t match being able to just watch all of the matches without any distraction. So yesterday was a bit of a shame for me as there was a fair few Arsenal players on that it would have been good to get a glimpse of.

Today I’ll get a good look at two for tonight’s game, at least, as Matty Turner will line up for the US and Saka for England. This is a game I’m fascinated to watch, because on paper the English team should have more than enough to cope with what I thought looked a decent American side in the first half of their game against Wales, but then just became introverted and too defensive in the second half. If they ‘have a go’ at England tonight, they’re going to get done with the space available to those English attackers. If they sit back, however, they’ll just find themselves camped in their own half and you’d hope that England have the quality to unlock their defence. So I’m not sure what sort of USA approach we’ll get today.

The early game is Wales against Iran and I think this will also give us an indication on where the different teams sit in their respective groups and that is often the case with these second round of games. Sometimes teams can have shockers – like Argentina or Germany – but then you realise that it isn’t that they are finished, but merely had a blip and will grow in to the tournament. Whereas other times you see a team race out of the blocks – like Spain and England – but the second game proves that actually they’re not as good and going to sweep everyone aside. If, for example, Wales smash up Iran and beat them by three, four or five goals, then you’ll look at the England result and say it was calibre of opposition rather than how great England are. If Costa Rica also get beat up in their group, then you’re just looking at that hammering Spain delivered them as par for the course based on the opponent.

That’s why tonight’s game for England will be interesting. Are we going to see that this England team is the real deal as they turn over the US? Or will we see a tight and cagey game that could go either way, thus proving that Iran just aren’t actually any good? We’ll start to find out today just which teams had a good opening start to the tournament and nothing else, as well as which teams really are the ‘real deal’.

Speaking of ‘real deal’, good on Gabby Martinelli making his first appearance for Brazil yesterday, as he came on as a sub in their game against Serbia. He’ll be buzzing today and hopefully that just skyrockets his confidence. My hope is that he shows the world just what he’s been delivering for us this season, but I suspect he’ll be limited on his minutes because Tite will insist on playing Raphinha and that unknown footballer Neymar. Although by the looks of that ankle that I saw the stills of yesterday, I wonder whether Neymar is a doubt for the second game in the group. If he is, then surely there’s a chance that Martinelli might get some more game time, although admittedly I know he hasn’t played the same position that Neymar plays. But perhaps there’s some shuffling that can be done to get him in? Here’s to hoping.

The only Arsenal news to come out yesterday from the mens side was that we have a friendly arranged at the Emirates on 17th December against Juventus. That’ll be an interesting one and it will probably have a fair few first teamers rocking up, so should be a good watch. Whether or not I go I’m not sure though; Christmas is a family time in my household and we get about seeing various relatives, so may or may not be something I can get down to see with the lads. But should be a bit of pre Christmas fun so certainly it’ll be of interest to most of us.

Right, I’m done for today. A day of work ahead, with the occasional glance round to the TV to see what’s happening on the various matches today.

Catch you all tomorrow.

That being said, the decision to postpone all football whatsoever at every level of the game, is a wrong one in my opinion.

Firstly, let’s look at the levels of the game, because there are games called off for Children’s football. How on earth is depriving children of football matches for a few hours on a weekend – and let’s not forget it is just a few hours, so there are plenty of opportunities to show respect over this weekend and the next week – really going to have any other impact other than a negative one? It just doesn’t make sense to me. These kids won’t fully understand why the game has been played and having deprived them of so much activity during the global pandemic, why is having them playing football really going to have any impact or show any level of disrespect?

Secondly, when we look further up the levels and in to the professional game, how is completely shutting down football going to impact the level of respect? In fact what it does is deprive people of coming together to talk about the Queen as a collective. On Sunday I would have gone to the Emirates, I would have spent some time chatting with mates that I only really see at the football because we don’t live near each other, have busy lives, etc. Sure, we have a WhatsApp group and can chat about things, but face-to-face interaction holds far more emotion and a sense of togetherness. During the match itself there would have been an impeccable minutes silence observed for Her Majesty, probably also a rendition of The Last Post before Kick off and maybe wreaths laid down as a mark of respect. None of that will happen this weekend now. Instead, people are at home, NOT coming together.

Thirdly, to the people who have travelled from far and wide to watch football, who have now missed out on what for some might have been their first ever Arsenal game. I bet there would have been some people in the stadium who spent a lot of money getting to the match and because of where they live, they may never get the chance to see The Arsenal live again. Imagine for those people – lovers of the Queen or not – to be able to be in the ground and be part of the celebration of her life, as well as the respect of acknowledging it.

Fourthly, to the rest of the sporting world, many of whom have decided to carry on and play competitive sport this weekend. They will be observing the respect and celebrating the life of the Queen this weekend in the golf, the cricket, the rugby and many other sports. Are these sports suddenly not respecting the Queen? Or are they about to show exactly why sport and life in general SHOULD go on. It is going on for everyone else. I worked yesterday, people will be working in all other professions, so why has football arbitrarily decided that it should be the outlier compared to every other part of life? The decision made collectively by the football authorities feels wrong to me and I cannot find a valid enough reason to see why this decision has been made.

There’s is the trivial note to add in to this of the fixture congestion given the World Cup this season, but I understand that that is a mere footnote in this debate. But it is still a debate point that needs mentioning, because I have no idea when these matches are going to be played. They can’t now be played this side of the World Cup and they won’t be played straight away as soon as players get back, because that’s the Christmas schedule which will be packed. You’re probably looking at a midweek in February or March for these matches to be played. That can of course happen but for some teams that will give an advantage that right now they would not have had.

There are probably a wealth of other reasons that I just haven’t thought of that make this decision both baffling and incorrect to me. I don’t understand it and I feel like the Queen herself would probably have thought “why on earth are you doing this?” because she was a wonderful person who was incredibly humble. She is probably up there wondering why all of the fuss and for somebody who was a figurehead of the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ era, this doesn’t really ring true to the reality of what those words mean.

Just my opinion, hopefully delivered respectfully.

Catch you all tomorrow.

1. Gabriel Jesus might actually have signed for The Arsenal
2. We get a good showing in Germany as the lads travel out for the first of their pre season friendlies on Friday
3. Some kind of left field transfer emerges that sees us linked with somebody we weren’t necessarily linked with as of today. Or at least one of the players we’re after moves closer to becoming an Arsenal player.

That feels like a very achievable ‘to do’ list that can be ticked off in a week I reckon. If I’m to guess on the chronology of those three things happening, it would probably be in the order that I’ve listed them. I suspect that Gabriel Jesus will happen at some point today or tomorrow and depending on who you read it is has been because of getting sign off on a visa for the player. Gabriel Jesus will have joined on the ‘skilled worker’ visa and the rules around that are that you need to earn more than £25k per annum, so I reckon he’s covered on that front! I suspect that the club are just making sure and they probably just haven’t had the confirmed paperwork over the weekend, hence why no announcement. I’ve seen some people talk about Richarlison being announced, but if you look at the statement made by The Scum, it says ‘subject to a work permit’. Perhaps the club are just waiting for that clearance before releasing. I also suspect that they’re happy to have some distance between that announcement and the one they want to make of our own newly signed Brazilian. But I’ve already speculated on that over the weekend so won’t go back over that thinking here.

It’ll happen, we just need to let it all play out, then we can all do the usual fanfare. I did kind of get how some fans are saying its killed the buzz a little bit. We’ve all known this for so long (that the transfer is happening) that when it does happen there will be a lot of ‘WE KNOW!’ that will go down amongst the fanbase. That would be a shame because it is a big signing and it is our marquee one of the summer, so to lose some of the good vibes because the transfer has been dragged out, is a little bit of a shame if you ask me.

On the second point, I think that happens before any left of field transfer talk because we know that it has a defined date. We are playing on Friday and after the game on Saturday against Ipswich, I suspect it’ll be most of the same faces that will play most of the minutes against Nurnberg on Friday. I think some of the international duty lads will be reporting in to start training and maybe that’ll see some of them travel, but I’m not sure whether they’ll be reporting towards the end of the week or today, so that will have an impact on who travels. If they all arrive from today then I think the halftime switch in players that will happen on Friday will be very different from the one against Ipswich. In that game at the weekend there were some very familiar faces for the first half, then it was a young and very unknown group of lads that finished off the match. If most of the first team squad travel out on what I’d presume would be Thursday, then I think it’ll be two halves of well known players getting minutes. So players like Gabriel, Xhaka, Saka, Odegaard, Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Fabio Vieira, Saliba, Tomiyasu…*whsipers*…Gabriel Jesus….could all be on show. But we’ll know soon based on who is in training this week.

So to my third and final point, which is on that random transfer to happen, or for us to get close to signing a player and like I said a couple of weeks back when I was in Portugal on holiday, these deals tend to seem to happen when I go on holiday. I’m only away for the weekend – his coming one – but my hope is that my holiday vibes can be channelled to the club and they go and make an announcement that somebody new has signed, or at least we can get an Ornstein bomb/Fabrizio Romano ‘here we go!’ over the weekend, which would be nice.

I personally would like that to be Tielemans. We have been after him for a while, the expectation was that we’d get him and get him for a decent fee, he appears to be quite hot on us if you read some of the journos out there with their fingers on the pulse, so this feels like the kind of deal we could chivvy along pretty easily. Perhaps that’s why they have focused their attentions on getting other deals done and certainly the noises this week are we’re going back to meet Ajax over the Lisandro Martinez situation. If the Tielemans deal is so easy to do I don’t know why we haven’t tried to get that done first, personally. Get the money over to Leicester, get it done, then go and have a look at those versatile players who could fit in a few different positions (which we already have players in and so therefore are not in as pressing need as we are for a midfielder). But I know naff all about the inner workings of elite sports teams and so I guess I should probably just leave it to those people whose job it is to worry about this stuff seven days a week.

Would be nice to have a shiny new Tielemans rocking up at London Colney this time next weekend though, I have to say.

And that’s probably it from me for today methinks. Hopefully catch you tomorrow with some thoughts on a certain shiny new Brazilian joining our ranks.

So to hear that the same guy has won this trophy again, well, it’s all a little…boring…isn’t it? I’m not even sure he’s the deserved winner. Feels like it’s just an arbitrarily decided decision to be honest. Lewandowski scored over 60 goals last season and yet he only gets runner up. It’s just…well…weird, is all.

Anyway, let’s extrapolate ourselves from this particular discussion, because it isn’t about The Arsenal and it isn’t very interesting. How about we talk about something else, like how the loanees are getting on, as well as what it might mean for them?

Firstly for that lovely lad Hector Bellerin, who got two assists in the Europa League against Ferencvaros, taking his assist tally to three for the season in all competitions. Hardly seems to have lit up the place but by the sounds of it he is starting to warm to his task of convincing Betis to make his move permanent and has started playing more recently it seems. He’s played ten times in all comps but in his last game was sent off against Elche which won’t help his cause. He’s also had that unfortunate own goal that he conceded earlier in the season and his season seems to be quite a topsy-turvy one so far. There are still plenty of games to play and he’ll no doubt get more opportunities, but given that he has no obligation to buy clause in his contract, for Betis to really want him he’s going to have to probably cut out some of those unfortunate moments.

The biggest challenge will be the fee and potentially the wages. Supposedly he’s on over £100k-per-week and if that’s true then it might make it a challenge for the Spaniards. I don’t know too much about their finances but the Spanish league is hardly awash with money and the COVID hangover still remains for many clubs. Betis will think they have an opportunity to strike a good deal for them with Bellerin only having one year left on his deal next summer, but whilst I’m Arsenal would be happy to sanction the move, the kind of Mickey Mouse bids teams like Betis will offer may not quite excite Arsenal as I’m sure they want to be.

Either way, it’ll be a tough decision that needs to be made, a bit like the Saliba situation, because Arsenal will have two years left on his deal and if he isn’t minded to sign a new deal then we could be looking at another difficult decision that needs to be made. The noises about Arsenal trying to sign him up now are good though. I think that rumour emanated from the Athletic, which means it’ll have a little more substance to it, but if Arsenal are taking measures already then that’s a-ok with me. It seems to me the player himself is growing in character and stature each week for Marseille and he’s playing in both league and Europa League competition and doing well by all accounts. I’ve made no secret that I think we could have a top player on our hands here so managing the next phase of his career could be vital of The Arsenal.

Guendouzi has also been playing regularly but we already know there’s a clause in there so I’m not really interested in talking about him. It’s the same with Mavropanos, who has an obligation clause in his contract and so in effect is only really and Arsenal player by technicality rather than reality.

The final one I wanted to look at was Lucas Torreira, who is getting in to the Fiorentina side now with more regularity and apparently they are looking to activate the clause that will keep him in Italy, according to some reports. Football London are running with that story and if true it means that around £15million is heading our way. It’s a massive drop on what we paid for him, but given how south his Arsenal career went, as well as the fact he barely featured for Atletico, it’s probably the best we can hope for. The speculation is that the deal might be done for January but I just can’t see that happening. Why would Fiorentina do that when they have a loan agreement until the summer? What benefit do they gain from it by fast tracking it? If they have an option to buy and are the ‘first option’, then they can just bide their time and pat the cash in the summer. Plus, I doubt Arsenal will be too fussed, because I’m not sure much of our business will be done until the summer anyway. So for me this feels like both parties will just wait until then before the Italians no doubt try to drive down a price they’ve already agreed with Arsenal on. More work to do there I suspect. But in the meantime we just have to hope that he continues to perform well because the better he plays, the more we can expect Fiorentina will be happy to stump up the cash.

And on that note I think that’s me done for the day. Hope you are keeping well and I’ll catch you in the morrow as we prep for a really tough away day to United.

Laters people.

I was in the garden with the TV on in the kitchen when I walked in to see that the player had collapsed and was having CPR administered to him and I must admit to getting a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I’d heard that he’d collapsed with nobody around him. Details are still emerging as to why he collapsed and the fantastic news is that by the end of yesterday Christian Eriksen had been awake, talking to his teammates and had even been part of the discussion to finish off the game. But when I was watching the footage yesterday I had the fear that this would be Marc Vivian Foe all over again. The Cameroonian midfielder collapsed in 2003 and never recovered and that’s probably what most of us feared yesterday for Eriksen. But he pulled through and thankfully his family are able to speak to their father, husband, son, etc.

Family – that’s what immediately comes to mind in a situation like this and perhaps naturally I put myself in the shoes of Eriksen’s family. What if that were my brother? What if it was my partner that had just collapsed and I had to watch on. I went outside and gave the wife a big hug. I told her I loved her and put a message on my family WhatsApp group that I loved them all and was sending virtual hugs to them, as we live quite a distance away. If they’d have lived round the corner I’d have gone over and hugged my mum and dad tightly right then.

A situation like this reaffirms what is important in life and I am thankful for the loved ones and people in my life. I’m thankful for the friends I have across all elements of my life, including The Arsenal, with whom I have a collective who I will be hopefully meeting up with again in the near fture to share stories, successes, consolation in failure for our football club. But at least we’ll all be together.

I’m thankful for you guys too. I don’t get thousands of people reading the blog each morning – probably because most of the time it’s just incoherent rambling with typos and factual inaccuracies replaced with just my opinion, but the fact there are some people out there who seem to want to pay attention to my Arsenal ramblings makes me happy and even if you disagree with me, even if you want to call me an idiot, that’s fine. Because I know that we’re all part of the same family – the Arsenal family – and even though some people might all be at each other’s throats at times, we all share the same level of passion for our football team. That makes us a virtual family and whilst you can’t choose your family but you can choose your friends, I’m glad you’re hear and I send you my virtual hugs today after what I saw yesterday.

Catch you all tomorrow with some more of the usual transfer nonsense or thoughts on the games today.

Have a good one and hug those closest to you.

Laters peeps.

But instead, the talk of today and the coming weeks will be the announcement from 12 of the biggest clubs in Europe that they want to form a new ‘Super League’. Let me tell you this: there is nothing super about this whatsoever. This is greed. This is the ugly and malevolent face of the greed that exists at the top of the game, spearheaded by billionaire owners who just want more. More money, more wealth, more for themselves.

We’ve seen this for years. We’ve questioned why American owners who know nothing about football, or ‘soccer’ as they call it, would get involved in clubs like Arsenal or Manchester United. When they have shown no interest historically, when it isn’t a sport that they love, why would they want to get their greedy paws on our clubs?

The long game has now finally been confirmed. It had been talked about for years but the global pandemic has just accelerated the greed. The 12 biggest clubs in football have used a global health crisis to expedite their own demands for more wealth accumulation. It is wrong, immoral and down right disgraceful. Nobody wants this except the owners of this new ‘competition’. All fan groups of the teams in this Super League have essentially come out and derided it. The footballing authorities have lambasted it. Governments have chimed in. UEFA and FIFA have said they will throw these teams out of the competition and the Premier League have also said the same.

My one hope – perhaps football’s last hope – is that the game universally rallies against these appalling proposals from these clubs. If, for example, players cannot play for their national teams because they are inelligable for the competition as a FIFA or UEFA competition, then perhaps it becomes something that even the players themselves don’t want. Imagine telling Messi he can’t play for Argentina in the World Cup? Or telling Harry Kane he won’t captain England at the Euro’s because he plays for a Super League team? It will force players to think twice about joining Super League clubs and would seperate those that just want to play football, with those that just want to make money. A LOT of money.

And that’s what football will become if this goes ahead. It will be about money. The ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’. It will be like the NFL in that the word ‘competition’ becomes almost irrelevant. How will you feel if, as an Arsenal fan, you support a team who never gets relegated, but doesn’t get near the money of Chelski, Man City, Barcelona or Real Madrid. Bayern Munich would be able to continue to snaffle the best talent from Germany in a hope to compete (correction – just seen Bayern haven’t signed up. Good for them), but at Arsenal we’d become a lower league team bumping along each season. You know how I said the Fulham game was a bit ‘meh’ and I didn’t really celebrate because the domestic season is done for us? Well imagine that happening from November. Imagine we’ve played four or five games, lost them all or most of them in this league, then have the rest of the season just playing out exhibition matches as the bigger clubs fight it out in what would essentially be a footballing equivalent of the NFL playoffs.

And speaking of that, which is clearly where these clubs want to take it. Imagine when it is decided that Arsenal football club as a ‘franchise’, can make more money by relocating to LA? The can play in the Rams stadium because their owner already has that. They can change their name to LA Arsenal. Do you think that won’t happen? Because if you know Kroenke and KSE you’ll know it will very much be something on their wish list. Stan Kroenke is from near St Louis in Missouri. He’s an NFL fan. But he moved his local team to LA because there was more money in it for him. I can tell you now he’ll have no problem moving The Arsenal to the US. He’s never had an affinity with our club and he has zero loyalty to North London or the UK. In fact it would suit his ultimate purpose to do it.

This is why I sat in a room a couple of years ago with a group of Arsenal fans and heard everyone talking about the #WeCareDoYou movement. It was a collective of fans that want to preserve the values and traditions of the club. Football is our game – all of us – we all have a stake in it. But these owners, these people trying to turn it into a money machine and not a sport are trying to take it away from all of us. They are trying to turn it in to a spectacle that will no longer represent the game we all grew up loving. They want to turn it in to a bunch of exhibition matches that rake in the coin. Then they want to pocket that themselves because they are not content with being the 0.1%. They want more. More, more, more. Always.

I’m saddened at the prospect of this. It will shake my belief in Arsenal and already has that we are pursuing this. But we are doing this because of KSE and for those of you who have suggested that KSE aren’t all that bad, that they have invested a little in us, that haven’t got behind the attempts to stem the tide of this greed we are now seeing unfolding in front of our very eyes…well…I am sad for you because you have indirectly had an impact on this.

The new face of Football is greed: The greed is channeled in to this European Super League.

Catch you all tomorrow.

We were spritely, we controlled possession at times, we defended very resolutely at other times, we looked good on the counter and some of our big players really did step up at Wembley.

We do enjoy that ground and winning shiny silver trinkets, don’t we? That’s 16 I think we have now and as a Aubameyang said after the game Arsenal is a good place to be at right now.

And he’s a good striker to have on your team, once again bagging a very tidy goal by curling the ball beyond Alisson with a fantastic finish and tribute to Chadwick Boseman, the Black Panther actor who tragically passed away this weekend.

The finish was good but the move and build up was also special and once again we saw what proper build up play from the back can deliver for you. It draws your opponent towards you, forces them to create more space either between lines or – if they press too high and compact then in behind – and means you get chances. The goal came from a good ball from Bellerin, a fine cross field switch from Saka and then the final finish from Auba just underlined how essential he is to Arteta’s plans this season.

I thought there were plenty of promising performances, not least from Ainsley Maitland-Niles again and with the player himself just receiving a call up to the England national team, it is reward for the way he finished the season and also how he looks to have started it.

And we now need to be looking in Wolves’ direction and telling them that the price has just gone up. You can’t pay £15million for an England international and assuming he gets some form of game time next weekend under Gareth Southgate, Arsenal should be making it very clear to suitors that even £20million feels a little low.

It’s also helpful that the player himself said yesterday that his heart is with The Arsenal and with him not publicly angle for a move (unlike those with agents like Torreira’s) it really does feel like teams have to prize him away from us, rather than us feeing like we’re ‘offloading’ him.

Martinez also started yesterday and having seen some of the rumours about Newcastle wanting to low ball us at £10million for his services, I hope Arteta starts with the Argentinian in two weeks time. He’s earned that and I was pleased to see him get that start in this curtain raiser to the new season. Whether or not he is still number one in two weeks time remains to be seen.

There wasn’t really a lot he could do about Liverpool’s goal though and I thought we were a little unlucky having defended resolutely for most of the game. It took a couple of deflections to get through to Minamino and if Lady Luck has been with us on another day it probably deflects a couple of times and is booted into touch.

So we go straight to pens on the final whistle and unlike the League Cup in which Liverpool beat us on pens, we did the business this time, leading Arteta to reflect on how little wins like this and the way in which they can build confidence for what will be another strange season.

But hopefully it’ll be a successful season. This will certainly help us all to get a little more excited for the start of it. There is still a lot of business to be done both in and out and I’m sure the club will be going into overdrive to sort it out during this international break. By the sounds of it Holding will be heading out and possibly Torreira too if we can find a buyer, but playing Elneny as we did does make you wonder how speedily the club will act to ensure we get the right upgrades in to the team as soon as possible. Surely we can’t be going into the season where the Egyptian is such an integral part of Arteta’s plans? I mean he did ok yesterday and he’s an ok type of player, but he won’t kick us into a Champions League spot, will he?

First get the Auba contract extension announced, then announce Gabriel, say ‘thanks and good luck’ to Holding and let’s look at strengthening that midfield, Arsenal. Arteta will need it because with Chelski looking stronger it’s feeling like this will be one of the toughest seasons to get into the competition via the league this year.

Catch you wonderful people tomorrow.

So to wake up this morning to hear about the fact that Coronavirus has hit our club via the Olympiakos owner, causing tonight’s game against Man City to be postponed, really does hit home just how much closer to general life being disrupted that we are.

But it’s not just the fact it’s affecting sporting events relevant to us, it’s also the knock on effects of this situation, that shows how quickly this virus can sweep football.

For example, if:

Olympiakos chairman tests positive. One Arsenal player meets chairman after game.

Arsenal players self isolate across the whole squad and get tested. If one Arsenal player is found positive:

West Ham players self isolate for 14 days. Portsmouth players too as we played Portsmouth in between time. But Portsmouth played Fleetwood Town yesterday and Peterborough on Saturday. So they will all need to think about being tested. Fleetwood played Blackpool at the weekend so what happens with them?

How far down the chain does it go?

It shows you just how difficult this is to contain but also just how close we probably are to most sporting events going either behind closed doors or postponed. And then what? What about the fans that paid money for travel and tickets? Do they get that money back? Do the clubs then refund? Then do they claim back the cash from insurance? Is that a thing?

There are so many questions that arise from this Coronavirus spread that it boggles the mind. I was talking to the lads on the radio on Monday night and lamenting the fact that the timing of this City game – as I expected us to lose – was unfortunate. But the response I got was that the Premier League has told both clubs that of Man City go deep in the Champions League and FA Cup, then they don’t know when this game could be played.

Well, we’re now into that territory and who knows when this game will now be played, or whether they’ll have to extend the football season.

I don’t even know if that is feasible given the Euros that are supposed to be taking place.

And what about our players in self isolation? If we have half the squad missing for two weeks then that’s at least three games that we’re going to have a decimated squad; surely the Premier League wouldn’t force us to play the kids, would they? I know our season is touch or go as to whether it’s a complete bust or not, but that would be an almighty kick in the teeth to the club to force them to play matches with a large chunk of the squad missing.

But what would be the alternative? Shoehorn three games a week in April and May? It would be a nightmare, not to mention potentially damaging in terms of injury, fatigue and general quality of the football we watch.

So what’s the alternative?

No idea. We’re now at the stage where we’re going to have to accept that Coronavirus and the chaos that has enveloped both China and Italy is very real, certainly here, and some kind of resolution from a sporting perspective has to be found.

That’s it for today I’m afraid. No point doing a match preview and it feels like pretty much everything is on hold at the moment. We just have to cross everything that all of the Arsenal players test negative for the virus, which I’d imagine Arsenal will have testing taking place today to ascertain just how deep the potential threat runs in the whole squad.

Hopefully we get some answers quickly and we get some positive ones at that.

Catch you guys tomorrow.

I saw Iwobi got a decent looking goal for Nigeria yesterday. He’s playing centrally for Nigeria in a number eight role it seems and there’s been a few people who have suggested he could be an option there. Not for me I’m afraid. It was a fine composed finish, granted, but he has that in his locker. He does that at Arsenal occasionally, but that’s his biggest problem: it’s always occasionally. For him to be considered centrally we’d need to see him massively up his game on a more regular basis. Let’s not forget the amount of times we’ve seen him open his body up and daisy cut the ball down the ‘keepers throat for an easy pick up.

If you’re going to tell me that we’ll go from Ramsey as our number eight to Iwobi, well, I’m going to tell you it’s just another element of decline at the club that we’re seeing.

Of course this is all just hearsay and I suspect we won’t be seeing Iwobi centrally in the near future. I’m also not sure we’ll be seeing Zaha either of I’m honest. He’s tweeted a cryptic message or two whilst away with the Ivory Coast team but the reality is that Palace want mega bucks and I just can’t see Arsenal dropping £70million odd on him. I think this will probably drag for a few weeks but the good news is that we only have to wait another four weeks because then the window will close. Thank god. Let’s just focus on the football and how the bloody hell we are going to improve our league position with what is essentially a weaker team than we had last year.

That’s maybe where youth can play a part and yesterday it appears as though there was a decent looking game from the Under-23s at Borehamwood. It’s funny because most seasons it’s the first friendly for the first team but Arsenal have been quite clear in giving this one to the under-23s this season. I didn’t watch the game because I’m out in Portugal, but I did see the result and it looks like some players like John-Jules impressed. This is obviously a bit of a dress rehearsal for players that might make it on the US tour and whilst Martinelli will go in to the squad as the shiny new signing, there will no doubt be five or six spaces for some of the young players to get out there too.

And that’s where we’ll start to see if any can make it in to the managers thinking for the beginning of the Premier League season and at this stage we have to hope that there are a few. We lost Welbeck, Cech, Ramsey, there’s plenty of noises about Koscielny wanting to get himself back to France, so whilst we can be pleased that it appears Holding is back in training earlier than many of us expected, we probably need to start hoping that there is a few gems who will go out to the US and shine over the next week or two.

The Koscielny situation is an interesting one because I would probably let him go if a club in France wants to drop a bit of cash. At 33 he’s probably got a season or two left in him but there’s no way on earth we should be letting him leave for free. I spoke a few weeks ago about Fekir being a potential player we could look at and if Lyon are looking at cashing in on a guy with one year left on his contract for £30million, why shouldn’t we just drop a cheeky £20million plus Koscielny offer to the Lyon President Aulas? I reckon they might have a sniff at that, especially as they’re rumoured to be on the lookout for a centre half. It’s unlikely because those kind of swap deals happen, but sure it’s worth a punt?

As always we’re left in the dark. But what I have found interesting reading is a couple of scoops that Charles Watts has had from Dick Law, including the details over the Luis Suarez failed bid a few seasons ago. Well worth a read if you’ve got a minute.

Anyway, that’s the lot for the day from me, I’m off to catch some rays.

Laters folks.

1. It brought our goal difference with Chelski back to the same level having been a few behind them after their 5-0 hammering of Huddersfield last weekend
2. It poured water on my theory that we’re the only club that seems to go to fellow ‘Big Six’ teams and get spanked
3. It will hopefully have a detrimental effect on Chelski’s morale and coupled with the volume of games they have to play, hopefully, we can capitalise.

That’s the hope anyway. We know our form hasn’t been great but this is where Unai should be earning his stripes in respect of his European pedigree in this competition. I just hope that’s the case.

We’ve got a whole four days to come before then though which also hopefully means the mystery illness and injury some of the players had at the weekend will magically disappear. I suspect it might and when he does his presser – which is probably tomorrow – he’ll be able to give us some positive updates. Until then we wait with baited breath.

One topic I have seen discussed online over the weekend is the way in which fans react to players. In the Arsenal corner of the online universe that has been the reaction to Maitland-Niles and him messaging back people telling him to work harder, to concentrate more, blah, blah, blah. To be fair to him he responds to a lot with a simple “I’ll keep working” and so it seems like there wasn’t too much damage done to him psychologically, but I also saw an article about Ben Foster and the pressure that he felt under when he was younger and particularly at Man United.

I have to tell you I just don’t get it. Personally I don’t even get why anybody would want to follow footballers on social media anyway. The content they put out is usually very sanitised, they don’t tend to interact with fans too much (who can blame them when they just get abuse), so what is the point in following them? I don’t bother following any of our footballers because where I go online is to have a discussion with likeminded people.

Then, when you come across the occasional crazy shouty person, I tend to just ignore. But why any human would want to spout some of the abusive stuff that some people do online directly aimed at people is baffling. Especially when it’s a kid of 18, 19, 20, 21, etc. These are young teenagers turning in to young men. Why on earth do they deserve that level of hate aimed at them?

I’m not a fan of Iwobi. I roll my eyes, I tut at him, I even question on this blog why he’s in the team at all, but I’m not going to find out his social handles and start firing off tweets or posts at him that are ranty. Why would I? It doesn’t achieve anything.

Well, the only thing it does achieve is that the player has a negative perspective on us as fans and if that ends up with somebody thinking “screw this I’ll go somewhere else” then sometimes you can kind of understand it.

Ramsey had two or three years where he frustrated a lot of us. There were tiles when I’ve seen all kinds of ridiculous abuse aimed at him. We all know that his impending exit is money and contractual related, but what if there’s a little part of a player like Ramsey who thinks “well, I got years of abuse anyway, so why should I be that bothered?”

And I’m not trying to say our fans as a collective are causing players to want to leave or not join. I’m just saying that it must be a teeny weeny contribution if a player gets consistent abuse all of the time.

I don’t really have a resolution though I’m afraid, because we have a relatively unregulated social media world we live in and freedom of speech/abuse is something none of us want to be censored on. But there must be a way in which some of these ranty people who abuse footballers can be sifted out.

Perhaps the answer is that as a footballer you just don’t bother with social media. Or you just have accounts that are protected so you or your PR company have to approve individuals based on their own profile and how mental they’ve proved themselves to be on the platform up until this point.

I’ve got no idea. But what I do know is that we have a crop of young players with great potential and if that potential starts to get realised whilst at The Arsenal, then we wouldn’t want it tainted by 40-year-Old keyboard warriors aiming their vitriol directly at a person half their age, just because they have a platform to do so.

Something to think about on a Monday morning.

Laters.

It’s also getting hot over at the German FA by the looks of it, because yesterday Mesut Özil dropped a bomb on social media declaring that whilst Reinhard Grindel – the head honcho at the German FA – is still in charge he will never play for Germany again.

This public outing of Grindel was made via a release on social media and included specific examples of his comments whilst being a politician about immigration. Özil also gave some examples of some of the xenophobic abuse he’d been getting from some German people.

It’s fair to say that it was a ‘gloves off’ statement from our number 10 and it was clearly intended on defending himself in the wake of criticism both on the pitch and off of it, specifically with his picture with Turkish President Erdogan.

Everybody always says that Football and politics should not be interwoven but sadly, as always seems to be the case, they invariably do and I find it a sorry state of affairs when a footballer has to make the kind of comments that Özil has made. Sadly footballers are subjected to horrific abuse on social media and most of the time they just have to suck it up and ignore it. It shouldn’t be like that, people shouldn’t behave in such reprehensible ways, but footballers have to learn to have a thick skin from an early age.

And I find that so depressing.

So statements like his and how he feels he has to explain some of the disgusting behaviour he has been treated to are a damming indictment on the world we live in.

It is a damning indictment on social media and the horrible things trolls say.

It is a damning indictment on the fact the German FA seem to have used a poster boy for inclusion and success for the national team as a fallout guy from a disappointing World Cup.

It is a damning indictment on the media too, who in Germany appear to have perpetuated this approach of sticking the knife in to Özil, because he had his picture taken. Erdogan may not be a very nice person, he may have a horrendous history of silencing free speech, but his picture with Özil shouldn’t have left some sections of the German media jumping on Mesut as they have done. Football and politics shouldn’t mix but the media are as bad as the politicians in making sure that they keep them together. Because it stirs conflict and that in turn gives them an opportunity to create more scandal and get more clicks and hits.

Mesut Özil is a footballer. That’s all he wants to be. So let him be a footballer. That’s what we do at The Arsenal and I think you’ll see a massive rallying round him from all Gooners. He’s one of ours and if he doesn’t feel loved by the German FA, then he’ll get back to London and see very quickly where he is loved.

We’ve got Özil….

I’ve been asked that by quite a few people and when I give my response of “I don’t know, I just know the type of football I think Arsenal should play” I get the occasional nod, but I can see behind the eyes there is a slightly frustrated person I’m parlaying with because I can’t give them a definitive answer.

Then you get the non-Arsenal fans that make comments like “you wanted him gone, but you don’t know who you want in to replace? Pfffh” type of response. Well, to those people I say unto thee:

1. I have no influence on the decision anyway
2. I am not paid to make that decision – paid handsomely too
3. I know football and love football but I’m not in football

What’s the point in speculating on a specific person and then being disappointed when they don’t walk through the doors at Highbury House when the appointment is made? What is the point in already assigning a black mark against a new manager, just because it wasn’t ‘my’ choice?

So no, I don’t know who I want and no, I’m not sure I’ll every give a name as my definitive answer. What I just hope is that Arsenal are going to get the right person who can play the right way with the players we have.

The right way of course being the winning way. But there are lots of different ways of winning and then it becomes a discussion about which style one believes will fit our team.

And we do have to select a style to fit a team, which also means we need to fit a style for our manager because let’s all be honest with ourselves here, he’s not going to be able to bring in five or six £25-£30million footballers in multiple positions, is he?

We’ve just spent north of £110million on players in the last 12 months, plus bumper contracts for some players, so any new manager coming in is going to have to work with the existing team, maybe with one or two players in key positions.

For me that means less of a root overhaul and more of an evolution in the style and structure of our team.

So what should the new man do? How should he change things?

Well, for me, I want to see a high pressing Arsenal team. I love a high press, me, and I love when teams are put under pressure high up the pitch and turnover the ball in their own half. Defenders by their very nature are risk averse and so if you’re a high pressing team then you can either force errors by getting them to panic and cede position, or go long and turn over the ball.

It also means we play on the front foot and quite frankly, it’s the only way I see this current crop of players being able to play. Imagine relieving Mustafi of last ditch defending because we’re adopting the principles of a high press with Lacazette and Aubameyang up top and Ramsey pressing too?

Of course under a high press the key positions for me then become a better ‘keeper in the Ederson role of ‘sweeper/keeper’ plus better central defenders with more recovery pace. Think Koscielny but five years ago.

The high press is easy to teach as well. It’s about knowing your zone, having the fitness, but also pressing as a unit. Alexis was a classic example of when that doesn’t really happen and I’m sure we can all recall the countless times he pressed a defender, only to look back and see nobody else had, which meant massive gaps had opened up around the pitch.

The high press is also exciting. It’s energetic, it’s what gets fans excited as teams like Barcelona hunt high up the pitch as they used to and at a time when we’re all pretty bored with the way Arsenal play, wouldn’t it be nice to get back some of that excitement?

I know I’d be keen. Sure, it’s a little more risky, but just look at our back line as it is. We’ve been kamikaze all season anyway so imagine how good it could be if we have a structure and a style designed to be disruptive higher up the pitch and keep the ball as far away from that back line as possible?

I don’t pretend to be a tactical expert in football, I’m not a stats person, nor do I know the European leagues and every manager under the sun. But I know the type of football that I think will excite us and I know that there will be plenty of suitors who can deliver it, whilst still not ripping apart the team and also potentially giving some of our young players a chance.

Some Tuesday morning thoughts for you to all ponder.

For me it’s a standard working day but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to take what pleasures you can from it. After all, every day that passes by is a day you’ll never get to relive, so you might as well look on the bright side.

It’s raining here in London but that’s just par for the course unfortunately. It won’t beat me down!

Neither will Arsenal or, specifically what I wanted to talk about today, sections of the Arsenal fan base and their apparent steadfast views that they will never deviate from.

It appears that the AST meeting from Monday has caused a little bit of a stir amongst some Arsenal fans. Some sections of our fan base see the comments by Dixon as poor, that he shouldn’t be making the views about Bellerin, Mustafi and co. As clear as was reported.

I’ve seen some people make comments like “he knows his audience” when talking about the AST, as if it is a collection of football fans who are there to deliberately hear Dixon pile in on the manager and the current regime at the club. I’ve seen people call his views misguided, or poor, or even that he should show more respect to the man that got an extra few years out of him.

This has all got me to thinking about some corners of our fan base and the utter myopia that exists within it. Before I delve into that particular opinion let me tackle some of the above points mentioned in relation to poor old Lee, who let’s not forget gave almost an entire career to The Arsenal, retired an Arsenal player with trophies, respect and love from Arsenal fans.

“He knows his audience”

That was a veiled dig at the AST and a suggestion that they tee’d Lee up to paste the club. I’m not an AST member, haven’t been to any of their events, but I have plenty of friends that have and they range from the slightly more passive and middle ground Gooners, through to those that want the manager to be hauled out of the club by their coat tails. They are real people who represent a small cross-section of the fan base and I salute their efforts to get fans together in a group, as well as the events put on with different people. To suggest that they are some kind of militant faction designed to rid the club of the manager is ridiculous.

“His views are misguided. He shouldn’t talk about the club and the manager like that”

Firstly, what Dixon did say for those following the whole event, was that he had a lot of respect for Arsène, but he told the crowd of his experiences and his opinion, which was that Arsène never really was a great coach. Let’s not forget that it’s what most people have said already, but now that there’s an ex-player who’s played under him saying that, it’s suddenly in poor taste? People who have stated their opinion that Lee shouldn’t have given his opinion are clearly missing the irony of their own anger by suggesting some form of censorship of him.

Tribalism within tribalism

So having seen Lee have to respond to some of the comments and vitriol aimed in his direction over the last 36 hours, it got me to thinking about our fan base, the factions within it and I realised that as Arsenal fans we seem to have this weird tribalism that exists within our own tribalism.

Football is all about tribalism, the need for belonging, to be one of a collective of people. We all know that. But over the years of decline that we’ve seen in recent seasons, a ‘tribe within a tribe’ has arisen. There are some who are in the ‘Wenger Out’ tribe and they are entrenched in that view and now it seems to be more about who has been ‘Wenger Out’ longest as some kind of weird caste system. The thing about that is that it is finite though. It’s almost a dark humour kind of fan discussion but ultimately, it has an end point, because when Wenger goes everyone starts again from zero.

But it’s the other end of the tribal spectrum that is the most concerning. These are the people who – no matter what the view, no matter what the current situation at the club, no matter how poor everything seems to be – seem to feel the need to pull up the drawbridge around their views on Wenger. Anybody seen to be deviating away from a defence of the club or the manager are immediately turned on, whether in a passive-aggressive or full on aggressive manner.

I just find it weird. Why are these people so myopic in their views that they simply refuse to draw away from this single line of thinking? It’s just, well, odd. It’s a bit like my parents and grandparents generation who always voted Labour or Tory because that’s what their parents voted. I have never understood this thinking. I say it to my dad all the time, has your “team” won the election this time?

Politics should be about choosing the party you think will do the best job for your country. You should be free to change your view at different points in your life depending on who is saying the right things about the running the country.

It should be the same with Arsenal fans. Don’t push yourself into a corner where you are so one-sided in your view that you can’t be changed. Don’t defend what feels like the indefensible right now and on the other end of the spectrum, don’t be prepared to have a point in which your view can’t swing the other way.

I’ve made my views pretty clear that I want the manager to go but if we won every game between now and the end of the season, picking up the Europa League in the process, I’d certainly have a different perspective on the manager. Whether I’d still want him to stay is a different story, but my perspective would certainly have shifted. I don’t think that will happen because the team are a mess, but I’ll not be that one-sided in my views that I won’t change regardless of what is happening on the pitch.

Because that is the most important part of Arsenal and that is what should define our collective tribe, rather than any of the tribes within the tribe that we do or don’t think we belong to.

Until tomorrow.

Arsenal most certainly do have a development problem.

That kind of feels like a silly statement to make at first given that we’ve seen two very impressive performances from Maitland-Niles and perhaps we’re witnessing a breakthrough moment for the youngster. But it’s his rise that has prompted me to question whether we have issues with developing players into world class talent.

I think we have no problem with finding good young players who have ability and potential, but ask yourself: “when was the last time somebody truly fulfilled their potential at Arsenal?

Let’s go back chronologically and please, forgive me if I miss one or two but it’s early and my Christmas brain is starting to form, but let’s start with the most recent breakthrough:

Alex Iwobi. Burst on to the scene having played a few FA Cup games in the earlier rounds, as well as one or two League Cup games, then looked like a breathe of fresh air. Yet here we are a couple of years on and we have a player who struggles for form, confidence, as well as end product in the final third.

Why? Why have we not worked on improving him in areas of his game that sees him develop into a wonder star? Will he ever get there? I’m really not so sure at the moment. After all, he’s seemed to be going backwards for over a year now. Did Arsène over play him? Is he being given coaching to improve or just being told to be himself?

Hector Bellerin. Such an amazing talent that we dumped a French international for a youngster. But for at least 2017 as a whole he’s looked leggy, doesn’t seem to get in to as many good positions as he did two years ago, plus his defensive deficiencies have become all the more obvious.

Why? Is it because he’s been over played? A lack of any real competition to keep him on his toes?

Possibly. But with no other option at right back that the manager wants to consider, Hector will keep being run into the ground, before probably getting the hump and jumping ship somewhere.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Ok he was developed at Southampton, but Arsène invested a lot of minutes in him at an early age. He looked like such a talent and at times had been unplayable. But for whatever reason he decided he was stagnating at Arsenal and needed to move on for the benefit of his own development.

Jack Wilshere. The big one. The supposed heir apparent to Cesc and injuries aside – a familiar reasoning for Arsenal fans everywhere – perhaps we could have seen it. But his promise has been curtailed and now many are questioning whether we’ll ever see the 2008 Jack Wilshere vintage.

Why? Again, that familiar phrase of being overplayed feels like one consequence, but also his style probably affected his injury problems, with his dangling legs and drawing of opposition players on to him. It all feels like it contributes but ultimately, it’s yet another player that has never hit the ‘world class’ potential we thought we all saw.

Theo Walcott. Again, not initially developed at Arsenal, but has spent most of his career at the club and one or two seasons apart has never really evolved into the elite star that we wondered whether he would be at 17.

Why? Why haven’t we been able to take raw talent and develop it to the next level? Who was the last person who – to put a topical Star Wars spin on it – fulfilled their destiny at the club?

Ashley Cole perhaps? And when was that? 2002?

So we’re talking 15 years of bringing players through, giving them a chance, seeing them perform well initially, but ultimately never make that elite step up.

And that must also contribute towards our failings to compete for the big prizes as a club. Especially if you’re not dropping £200million on ready-made players each summer. It puts a heck of a lot of pressure and expectation on decent players being better than they could probably ever be.

We as fans don’t help but it’s hard to not get excited at the potential of somebody who has what feels like a long and successful career ahead of them at 18, having broken on to the scene, and I’m just as bad as everyone else in my expectation. Every time a young player makes it into the first team I’m always thinking “brilliant. If they’re this good now, they’ll be three times as good in three years, then we’ll have a decade of the best player in that position”. Yet how often does that happen?

Rarely for any club I suppose. When you’re dealing with human beings nothing is ever that clear-cut.

But what is clear is that any youth policy that has been in place hasn’t met the supposed lofty ambitions of the club; certainly for Arsenal fans the expectations have been nowhere near for a youth policy.

Big Per’s got a big job on his hands. That’s for sure. But it’s not just him. The manager, the older players, as well as the youngsters themselves, all need to be able to step it up if we’re once again going to get people fulfilling their potential.

Catch you tomorrow.

We wish him none of the best.

As for Arsenal related news, it’s happiness and joy for Giroud, Ospina, whilst commiserations exist for Alexis and Kolasinac. For the latter we can feel genuinely sad for, although a nice summers rest for him will certainly be welcome from an Arsenal perspective. For the former it just feels bloody typical that the Chilean’s one summer of recuperation will be the one in which he’ll exit Arsenal. 

The real winner from that Brazil win last night? Pep Guardiola. Arsenal have had to deal with a half for Alexis at the start of every season but of course with all of their riches and all of the amazing players that City have, why wouldn’t they have absolutely nothing standing in their way for a fully fit Alexis come August next year.

If ever the case for shipping him abroad in January were there, it has surely been strengthened now, because none of us want to see what a fully fit Alexis can do when starting from August. Especially as you just know that the football fates will cackle at us by seeing him return to the Emirates with his new club come the first Premier League game of next season with his new club. It feels almost inevitable at this stage.

So I hope Arsène sells the Chilean in January to PSG or some other team we’ll probably only encounter once every five years and I hope we can just replace with another star who we can pin all of our hopes on until he eventually runs down his contract into 2021. That’d be grand, thanks.

But let’s not dwell on any negativity because last night Ollie G bagged himself another goal and just to confound the modern day Premier League tacticians, wouldn’t it be super awesome if Arsène went 4-4-2 this weekend, with Laca and Ollie up front? It’d have old Marcos Silva scratching his head on how to set up, having spent the last few weeks peering over the fence at London Colney watching Arsène and his ‘tactical drills’ of 3-5-2. 

I would Kevin ‘Keggie’ Keegan luv it if we did that. 

Seriously though, it does feel a little harsh that Ollie G isn’t getting any game time, although you do wonder if this will be one of those situations whereby as soon as Lacazette hits a wall in terms of games, goals or injuries, that’s when Ollie will have his chance and I’m convinced that he’ll take it. The reason being is that whenever he’s been in danger of losing his position he always seems to up his game. That happened at times last season when Alexis was preferred up top and I can see that happening again this season. He’s already got two goals with two starts (and seven sub appearances) and I think if he gets more time on the pitch he will rise to the occasion.

And that’s all any of us have wanted with him. The only frustration about him is that he hasn’t had that competition before and if he steps up and delivers for us over the course of this season then we can only be happy for him. But for us too because both he and Lacazette getting goals will vastly increase our likelihood of breaking back in to that top four. 

But only the season’s unfolding will tell us if that prediction comes true.

And with that I’ll say good day for another one. Enjoy your Wednesday. 

It seems a little callous to then move so swiftly on to football, but victory is through harmony and the coming together as one, moving on with life to show these idiots that they achieve nothing but their own reservation in hell, if such a place exists. So we move on to football and Gabriel was arriving in Spain yesterday to finalise his move to Valencia. That’ll go through today and I kind of dealt with my thoughts on what it means in my blog yesterday, so I’ll leave any further pondering for now and simply wish the Brazilian every success in Valencia. He’s spent two years in England and won more than the Tiny Totts. 

There’s not much else going on ahead of tomorrow’s game at Stoke. Given that Arsène had his press conference on Wednesday it means that we’ve kind of seen all of the outrage and counter-outrage at whatever he said, so the dust has settled a bit and on my social media timelines it just feels like everyone is waiting in anticipation for the trip to Mordor. It’s a weird one because I’m not sure which sort of Stoke side we’ll face tomorrow. They’ve always been up for games against us and we’ve tended to – last season aside – always come-a-cropper, but supposedly Stoke never start the season well and from what pundits are saying they could struggle this season. If that’s the case it might be a good time to play them before the season really gets started and they realise that beating Arsenal has kind of been their ‘thing’ since they got in to the Premier League. More thoughts on the game tomorrow.

For now though, the other name on everyone’s lips is Julian Draxler, who is apparently already not not in favour at PSG any more having only just signed for them in January. As we all know he’s been the modern day Sebastian Frey, or the German Karim Benzema, so one matchday out of the squad and already people are speculating an exit. Which inevitably means…

…A TENUOUS ARSENAL LINK! 

Yay.

Where would a summer be without an interest in The Drax, eh? I suspect the reality is that he’ll feature for PSG this season, but given that they have a new toy in the shape of Neymar to focus on, he won’t be one of the stars by any stretch of the imagination. But I’d be surprised to see him go this summer. If he fails to establish himself in the team come next summer I’d imagine he’d be on his way, but I don’t see anything happening now. Besides, next summer we’ll have half the team out of contract, so we’ll be in the market for practically every position anyway it seems!

I hope William Carvalho, Yann M’Villa and Karin Benzema are all keeping their transfer powders dry this summer, because 2018 could be a big one!!

Lucas Perez is still here. But not for long, it seems. It’ll be a sad tale to see a talented footballer who performed well at the club leave, but there really is nothing for him at Arsenal any more so hopefully he gets the move back to his home club that he dreams of. I just hope it isn’t true that Arsenal are asking too much. If Depor come back with something closer to the £17millipn we paid though, it will be best for everyone, and we can carry on trimming a bit more of the fat from the squad.

Catch you tomorrow with a match preview. Laters peeps.

I decided to go for a long run yesterday afternoon and when I started my run I switched the radio on via my phone and started to jog just as Liverpool went 3-2 up. I thought “screw this, last thing I want to hear is Liverpool demolishing Watford” so switched it off quickly and started listening to some Arsenal podcasts. 

Well wouldn’t you just know it, Liverpool go an properly brain fart up opening day, followed by Chelski too, and I only caught the tail end of this at the end of my run. Part of me thought it was because I’d decided not to listen live, so you’re welcome, everyone. 

Match of the Day was so much more enjoyable yesterday as a result. I haven’t enjoyed the show as much as that for ages. Even if they decided that probably one of the games of the season – ours from Friday night – should be fourth in the running order.

Now, if Newcastle and West Ham can do something – anything – against the Tiny Totts and United today, we’ll all be laughing heartedly, even if it is only a week.

It does seem to be that defending is pretty much dead though. I thought Arsenal would get a pasting on last nights match of the day, but there were so many other shoddy defences yesterday, that our mad moments just sort of drifted in to the background. Hey, that’s fine by me, to be honest with you.

Of course from an Arsenal news perspective there was some reason to be concerned, which was the rumours of Alexis Sanchez being spotted in Paris with his lawyer, which of course led people to put two and two together and get a little worried. If you’re one of those people that are – don’t be! After all, Paris is a lovely city and very reachable via Eurostar, so perhaps he was just taking the guy out for a romantic meal? There are some wonderful views from the Basilica of Sacré-Cœur so I reckon that’s the reason he was knocking around those parts.

If I seem a little too light hearted for you then I apologise, but right now I really couldn’t give a monkeys. If he’s off to PSG then good. Let’s get some cash for him and reinvest in the team. It would be quite a change of direction for Arsène though, to sanction it, and would have meant an almighty U-turn that for some would be unforgivable.

For me though, after Friday’s victory I’m in a good mood, so whilst selling Alexis would end up being a bit of a dampener, I’ve been talking about wanting him out just to end another stupid saga for some time. So I’d probably just be more relieved than anything else. Especially if he’s moving abroad and not to City or Chelski.

I’d rather focus on other players, like Ollie G, who it’s hard not to love even more after talking about how his heart is at Arsenal. It’s amazing how being linked with a move away, as well as the arrival of Lacazette, suddenly had people so desperate gor him to stay. Me too as well I might add. But as many of us have all been collectively saying for a few years, the problem isn’t that we have an issue with Giroud at all, it’s that Giroud has at times felt like the only option. The arrival of Lacazette has therefore brought the effectiveness of Giroud in to sharp focus and as a result, we’re all quite desperate to see him continue his time at Arsenal. Hopefully he also hits the 100 club soon too. That would be great for him and a little milestone we can all celebrate too.

So we go in to today’s round of matches with a spring in our step and whilst it’s only the opening day of the weekend and there’ll be plenty of heartache to come, we’ve had a pretty decent start.

Catch you tomorrow. 

I guess the answer is simple: you can’t.

Our season will not be defined by one game. It won’t hinge on this result. But at 3-2 down and looking at the upcoming difficult run we’ve got, you’d have to forgive a fellow gooner for feeling pretty grim inside the stadium, I have to say. 

Leicester are not a great team and yet at times they looked like the same side that amassed all of those points to win the league through a soak up and counter approach against an Arsenal team that defensively was an absolute shambles. The saving grace we have is that their defence was equally as shambolic and coupled with that we looked really good going forward.

The evening started with a slight surprise in the line up, as Big Per wasn’t available because of his cut and despite training along with Özil this week, Ramsey was also on the bench. I kind of understood that given Ramsey’s propensity for early season injuries and indeed it was the first game of the season last year that caused him to miss three months. So the inclusion of Elneny made sense. 

What doesn’t make sense to me is why with Mertesacker our injured, Calum Chambers didn’t even get a look in, but I can only conclude that Arsène is putting him on the platform waiting to depart which if it happens will be a real mistake in my view. Mistake because as good as Nacho is and as great as Kolasinac played yesterday, our back three showed that we can’t rely on them for too many games. 

Holding looked shaky, Monreal is a full back filling in and asking him to be the central defender in the three was a lot, whilst Kolasinac probably had the best of the three in the end. For Holding you can put it down to his age, but he made some very sloppy errors and in a week where you heard the manager talking about playing young players knowing they will cost points, you can understand why the back three has been so good for him, because it affords him protection. But when the other two are square pegs in round holes (albeit both have had their edges filed and buffed down a little smoother in the position), it was always going to catch up with him.

If the rumours of Gabriel potentially being on his way back to Spain are true, you’d hope the manager sees sense, because we can’t have the same performance at the back as we had last night. The first goal was a long cross to the back post where two Leicester players were unmarked to head home, whilst the second was a sloppy pass from Granit Xhaka and was entirely preventable. It was the equivalent of  an unforced error. 

Xhaka didn’t exactly have the best of days until in to the second half, but that seems more symptomatic of who his partner in midfield is. Elneny covered ground, worked hard, but was also at fault for a number of poor passes and decisions. The return of Ramsey was welcome and Xhaka dictated play again and was involved in most of our goals yesterday. It emphasises the importance of finding another midfielder who will work with him but that’s another blog for another day. 

Today we must focus on victory and what a victory it was in the end. Swashbuckling stuff from two teams who simply could not defend. The third goal Leicester scored was entirely avoidable and saw Vardy unmarked from a corner, but I’ll park too much more chastising as the blog so far has had a little too much focus on the bad, rather than the good. 

And there certainly was some of that. I thought going forward we looked good. We created chances – a whopping 27 attempts on goal in the end – and we had end product. Within a minute or so Lacazette had got off the scoresheet and for him to have scored so quickly will do wonders for his confidence, keep people off his back and mean he doesn’t feel the pressure as much as he might have done if we’d have not seen a first goal for a few weeks. It was a decent enough goal; getting in behind the defenders and nodding the ball past Schmeichel to put us one up. Good on him and let’s hope he turns out to be a gem this season.

The second goal was more about bundling through with desire rather than craft. A mis-hit Lacazette shot found Kolasinac through on goal and the defender did the right thing by squaring the ball for Welbz to also get off the mark. I don’t know what it is, but strikers and attacking midfielders scoring goals always makes me happier. Probably because it’s linked to their own confidence. 

Which is why I’m also pleased to see Rambo get one, because his game is about energy and goals and the latter hasn’t really happened since that amazing season about four years ago. His equaliser was met with relief and joy in the ground, but I suspect I was just a bit punch drunk mentally at that stage, because I remember wondering why I wasn’t really celebrating as much as others. It was relief, but also I was annoyed because we should have been better defensively to have put Leicester to the sword.

Fear not though, because when that fourth and final goal was powerfully headed in by Ollie G, I did go nuts. We’d come back to lead in a season opener and all of the recent years hoodoo I was believing was real all just melted away. It was a goal that was textbook Giroud too and I have to say I wonder if this season could be one in which Arsenal fans really start to appreciate Giroud, because he’s not the only option any more. I might do a blog on it at some stage in the week I think.

But for now I’ll just focus on the madness of the Premier League and see y’all later. 

Peace out.

I’m in the sunny West of France with the in-laws, having spent the weekend relaxing, and with the total lack of interesting Arsenal related news I pretty much gave up blogging yesterday. But I’ve got a spare 20 minutes today so I thought I’d pen a thought or two. Mainly about our Japanese footballers. Don’t ask me why they popped in to my head, they just did, although whilst I am mainly thinking of former Gooner Ryo Miyachi and the forgotten man Takumo Asano, I’m not going to go back as far as reminiscing about Junichi Inamoto.

But it did make me wonder what Miyachi is up to these days. A quick check on Wikipedia confirmed his current whereabouts at St Pauli and last season he made 16 appearances and scored two goals. 

For a guy that was dubbed the Japanese Ronaldinho by Feyenoord fans in 2010, it does seem quite a fizzling out of a career that had Arsenal fans getting excited about his potential, and I’m pretty sure there was a call for him to get more game time after that initial loan spell.

Sadly he never really looked like he developed, did he? And so he finds himself in the second tier of German football and the excitement over his career when he signed for Arsenal must feel like a lifetime ago.

Which brings me to Takuma Asano, who my iPhone clearly has an issue with, because it keeps changing his surname to ‘Adams’. Asano was signed last season, loaned to Stuttgart, made 27 appearances and scored four goals. It’s hardly a sparkling return for him, but the fact he’s playing more football than Miyachi did for teams suggests that at least he’s being given a chance to show his potential, and I suspect we’ll see a tiny bit of him in pre season this season.

But I’d be surprised if Arsène is calling for Arsenal fans to chill a bit in relation to a new striker, because we’ve got Asano, who can fill the insatiable void that we have for a new signing.

Asano may yet prove to be a good player and I think a second year on loan – I believe at Stuttgart – will probably have a positive impact on him, but at 22 going on 23, he’s hardly got loads of time to develop himself.

The cynic in me thinks that he’s just the latest Japanese poster boy at Arsenal to capitalise on revenues in the Far East, but I don’t think Arsène is a man to do that, which means he’s clearly just another Sanogo-shaped punt. It does make me start to wonder how many punts Arsenal and other Premier League teams have with players every season. We do hear of a fair few and very rarely to any get beyond a few league cup appearances. 

It makes you wonder whether it’s all worth it. I guess the theory is that if you kiss enough frogs eventually one turns out ok, but it seems a lot of effort, and I’d love to know how much money we outlay just to keep these players in contracts when they don’t give any kind of return to the club. 

Then when we do get one – like Gnabry – we just take our eye of the ball for a bit (sending him on loan) and end up losing out. I could probably write a whole other piece about the Gnabry situation, but I think I’ll just leave it there for now, because we’ve all got better things to do on a Sunday than read my warblings. 

So I’m off downstairs to have myself a croissant. Au revoir for another day.

In the U.K. It’s Election Day. Snap election at that and to say I’m a little weary on all of this choosing malarkey is an understatement. It’s all a bit, well, ‘meh’ to be honest. You’ve got the red team promising to save everyone’s souls if they can just get in and ‘SPEND! SPEND! SPEND!’ on one side, then on the other side you’ve got the blue team who aren’t really saying anything other than a patronising metaphorical tap on the head and a “it’s alright. Don’t you worry. We’ll sort EVERYTHING out. We won’t tell you how, but we will, so there.” 

It’s all rather a load of old b*llocks really. 

Bit like the transfer window though, I suppose, so I guess I could be thankful that at least there’s been some other distraction from the fact that the football media are in full on bullsh*t mode right now.

If you’ll believe that lot of charalatans then you’ll believe anything. I think we’re up to about his number twelve on Kylian Mbappe. We’ve hit £150million, one of Stan’s ranches, a statue of the Prince of Monaco outside the Emirates, 557 Cheedar Cheese wheels, the full Hobbit and Lord of The Rings trilogy (extended version on blu ray), an evening meal with Ivan Gazidis and a dozen of those extra soft blankets they give to people in the directors box. I reckon that might just sway them you know. I await eagerly Monaco’s announcement that they’ve reached an agreement.

Clearly Arsène has been told that he’s not having anything to do with the money any more and Ivan is going mental like Michael Jackson in that Martin Bashir interview back in 2003. 

I want that one, and that one, and that one over there…

Of course Arsène being the power hungry man that he is can’t let go of control, which is why he’s saying that Arsenal are working in “dark and invisible” ways. Jebus Arsène, I didn’t know that you’d become so disenchanted with the price of players, that you and Ivan are now going around France abducting footballers. That’s a worrying sign my friend.

Still, as Liverpool have proven, tapping up of footballers is a taboo right now so you’ve got to try every trick in the book.

Seriously though, surely Liverpool’s admission of guilt warrants even furth investigation. They’ve essentially held their hands up and send in a thick scouse accent “it’s a fair cop mate, we have tried to unsettle a player through back channels. But we’re sorry so we’ll just be on our way, alright?”. You’d think the authorities might be saying “erm…no, afraid not”, but Liverpool – like Arsenal, United, Chelski and City, are the big players – so I’ll be stunned if they get anything other than another slap on the wrist and a nominal fine.

Of course no club is innocent as we know, but the fact that Liverpool got caught and then owned up to it is jokes in the extreme.

Back to the Arsenal world and David Ospina played last night, making a howler against Spain prompt a few people to make some flippant remarks about the fact that Fenerbahce are being ripped off for £3million when they get him next week.

They’re not.

They’re getting an Arsenal summer clear out bargain. Ospina is a very good number two, has had some good games in an Arsenal shirt and if we had somebody who knew how to play hardball in our backroom staff, would probably be on his way for closely to £8-£10million, which is probably nearer his market value. I don’t know what it is about us, but I don’t think we’ve got a market value or above price on players we’ve sold for over a decade. Fabregas was well under priced, so was Henry and the fact that van Persie went for £22million having scored a shedload of Premier League goals, was an absolute crime. 

When we come round to selling players we really aren’t very good. 

It does lead me to question the Szczesny noise though. Why on earth Arsenal would let Ospina and Szczesny go and leave only a 35 year old Petr Cech as our ‘keeper is a little beyond me. But then again it is Arsenal and we seem incapable of doing the ruthless thing when it comes to players. Personally I’d give both the Colombian and the Polish stopper a ‘best out of five’ game of rock, paper, scissors, to determine who goes to play regular football next season and who stays to challenge Cech. It’s the only fair, logical and scientifically proven method.

There’s a few other bits and bobs about Lemina, Mahrez, Rodriguez, Bellerin, etc, but it’s all just recycled stuff with a slightly different spin, so I can’t be arsed to go in to the details. 

Instead, I think about how different my life will be tomorrow when a new government is in place and instantly make everyone’s lives 17% better.

Or not. 

Laters.

I’m still revelling in that display and winning the cup. Yes the season was pretty grim at times, yes we have many questions and issues at the club that need to be sorted out, but by gosh isn’t it good to be celebrating silverware.

This is what I was saying to a few of the gentlemen in the pub beforehand and I mean this will all sincerity, that winning a trophy – any trophy – brings far more than finishing second, third or fourth. I’ve seen plenty of Spurs and Liverpool fans taking swipes and laughing at us from my Facebook account, but what I’ve said to all of these people is that I don’t care because I prefer watching my football team winning trophies. That’s the pinnacle for any football fan and when a crowing Spurs supporting mate gave me tried after the NLD, I asked him how many times he’d seen his team lift a cup, because for me it’s now three in four years.

I go to a lot of games and I don’t remember half of the top four run ins, but I can recount with crystal clarity each of the trips to Wembley. Because they are special. They are memorable and they are the moments that you cherish forever.

So yes, I’m disappointed that we finished fifth, but if at the start of the season you told me that we could lift the FA Cup but we’d finish outside the top four, or we could finish second, third or fourth and have nothing, I’d choose the trophy thank you.

We’ve spent too many years before 2014 convincing the world of the importance of the top four trophy, but Hull at Wembley changed everything and now I just want more of that feeling.

I want us to win the Europa League. I want us to win the League Cup. I want us to win the FA Cup. I’d love us to win the Premier League but right now that feels a bit beyond us. But winning trophies is why we all watch football – for that hope – and when that is achieved we should count ourselves lucky.

Today it’s a bank holiday and I’m feeling fine. I’m not quite ready to get in to the murky world of transfers just yet. I’m not going to have any concern as to what happens with Arsène. I’m going to try to milk every moment of Arsenal having won the cup.

I suggest you do it too.

Catch you tomorrow.

So as much as I hate Chelski, I can look forward to today’s game knowing the worst possible scenario has been ruled out.

Well, I say ‘look forward’, but in truth I’m bricking it today. When the draw was announced I was happy; City are a team that ship goals like we do and I thought that if we could build a bit of momentum then you never know.

Unfortunately that thing ‘form’ hasn’t really materialised and we go in to today’s game as severe underdogs. City have been picking up wins whilst we have been lurching from game-to-game. The Boro victory provided some respite but if truth be told, there’s not many of us that saw it as the spark in to life, is there?

That’s why today’s game could be either a blessing or a curse. The players should be up for this today. They should be ready for what attacking threat City will pose and should be prepared to put on a display for us. They owe us that much. If they show what they’re capable of then we have a chance of winning. If we do win there’s a final at the end of the season and there’s the possibility of a morale boost ahead of an end to the season which appeared to be petering out in to nothingness. However if we lose, it’s hard to see this season going anywhere but south, with little to play for and a top four spot probably a long shot.

In short, there’s a lot riding on today’s result, a lot.

The biggest question the manager will have been pondering is whether or not to stick with the back three that he tried at Middlesbrough. It was hardly the epitome of defensive stability and if Boro had more cutting edge we might be talking about another failed experiment from Wenger. But the win has turned the narrative slightly and some – myself included – will be hoping that Arsène sticks with three at the back as opposed to the 4-2-3-1 that we’ve been used to. City have a wealth of attacking options and with Gabriel Jesus back in the squad today they have an enviable array of attacking talent. A defensive three with wing backs might provide us with a little more protection and so I’m hoping that when the news filters through on team selection, we see Rob Holding’s name on it. He’s young, he’s probably a bit raw, but from what we’ve seen so far he looks like a composed talent and I’d like to see him trotting out on the Wembley turf from the start today.

Midfield will probably stay with Xhaka and Ramsey and if that is the case, they’ll need to offer more protection than ever before, because City will come at us in waves. I’m hoping that Ramsey has another decent performance like the Hull Cup final of a few years ago. Who knows, maybe Wembley suits him.

Up top I’d love to see Alexis up top but if Arsène goes with a 3-5-2 I think it’ll be Giroud with Özil and Alexis behind him. Welbeck has only just returned from injury so I don’t think he’ll play from the start but I think we’ll see him at some stage.

This is the type of game that gives me butterflies in my stomach. In a way that’s a good thing, because I haven’t had that feeling with Arsenal for some time. I’ve been going to games just feeling a bit numb so to have a game with that little bit of excitement in my belly is a good thing. I think.

Where ever you are watching the game today, cross everything and hope for an Arsenal win, because in this season of disappointments it would be nice to have something nice to celebrate.

Up the Arsenal

Honestly. I can’t work out whether it’s patronising more to the actual Leicester fans or those of us that support other clubs and have to read some of the drivel that they feed the world these days.

But unlike a few gooners out there, I’m not looking at what Leicester have ‘accomplished’ in comparison to us. Not in the isolation of this season anyway. Bayern and Sevilla are hardly comparable. 

Anyway, let’s focus on The Arsenal and more importantly, how the devil we’re going to get near qualifying for a competition in which we never really ever compete.

I’ve had a quick look at the fixtures and I’m afraid boys and girls, it makes for nervous reading, because we have some really tricky fixtures coming up.

We have West Brom this weekend, in which the season before last we drew and last season we won, and Tony Pubis will always set up his side difficult to break down. We have Man City at home, who apart from last night have been in great form and have momentum building. We have Palace away who will be fighting for their lives and even though we’ve won the last two games there, it’s always felt closer and more nervy than I thought it should have done. 

We’ve got that ‘orrible lot from round the corner away from home. Harry Kane will be back by then I expect and you know he’s scoring against us. It’s kind of his annoying thing he does. That and the ridiculous handshake thing with Delli Alli which make them both look like they’re about eight.

We’ve got Stoke away. Need I remind you that in the league we’ve won there once since they were promoted. An abysmal record. 

We’ve got United at home. A United under Jose who is still to lose a league game against Arsenal. Then at the end of the season we have Everton. I haven’t even mentioned Southampton away, which we’ve also struggled with, this season’s FA Cup aside.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that this won’t be like previous seasons. In previous seasons when the team has had a run of games, it’s usually all games that seem more winnable on paper than this season. We have 12 remaining games and based on what I’ve said above, eight of them I would class as ‘tough’ ones. “There are no easy games in the Premier League” I know, bla, bla, bla, but if we really are to build some kind of end of season run, realistically we’ve got to win the other four games I haven’t mentioned, plus probably five out of those seven to ensure we finish in the top four. That would land us on 77 points which seems a lot for the top four spots, but when you consider we’re already five points off the scousers (albeit with two games in hand), I don’t think it’s improbable that fourth place will be in to the mid to late 70 point mark.

It brings what is required from the team in to stark contrast. They are going to have to show form that is befitting of champions. We haven’t really seen that all season though. Sure we went on a winning run in September to November, but there were a few draws in there for that unbeaten run, which is something you can’t really afford if my predictions prove accurate. We need to win nine of our last 12 games. Against tough opponents. We have to get victories against teams in some instances, where we haven’t been doing it in the recent past. And with the team looking so shaky on confidence at the moment, something needs to happen for us to get to that 77 point marker. There needs to be some kind of spark that suddenly sees the team click in to gear.

Could it be this supposed new change of formation to a three man midfield?

Could it be a previously unused player who suddenly shows his form and helps to galvanise the team? I’m thinking a returning Rosicky of previous years, or that time that Benayoun was on loan and didn’t play until after Christmas, but was then really quite handy in the side.

Could it be a shuffle of the defensive unit?

Whatever spark we need, there’s no doubt it needs to start this weekend, and from the start of the game too. No more of this sluggishness until halftime please. We’re good enough and fit enough to start strong and finish strong in these games. The way the fixtures have fallen so far have meant the team has been getting rest in between matches, so there are no excuses not to look spritely this weekend. 

Let’s just hope that’s what we get.

Until tomorrow peeps.

I’ve woken up to a feeling that I thought I wouldn’t get for at least another couple of days. I’m over the Bayern defeat already. 

Perhaps it’s because I always knew we weren’t good enough. Perhaps it’s because I vented my spleen on my blog yesterday. Perhaps I’m just so bored with Arsenal I don’t care any more. Or perhaps it’s just that with Arsène hinting a decision will be made about his future by March, I feel like there might actually be some closure on this matter, although the fear is that we see another two year deal and yet more of the same. 

But whatever it is, I do feel like I’ve moved on, which is just as well because the quicker I can forget about the mental strength of this team being as resilient as a chocolate tea pot, the more I can focus on other things in my life. Like family, friends and even playing more FIFA and watching less of the real stuff.

Who am I kidding though, right? I’ll be watching the Sutton game. The hope for a glorious season may have completely evaporated, but I still love ARSENAL and always will, so I’ll watch on Monday and hope that the collective of players who take to the fake pitch do themselves justice.

It’ll be Arsène’s presser today and I do wonder if he’ll look as broken as he did on Wednesday night. He didn’t have an answer to the TV interviewer and although I’d still expect him to put a brave face on ahead of Sutton on Monday, I wonder if his mannerisms will belie what he says. I wonder if he’ll be reserved, or be tetchy, or perhaps even argumentative? I suspect he’ll be dishing out plenty of the ‘bemused Arsène’ when asked about the mental strength of his team, or the noises around his future, you know the look: a blank stare that doesn’t really give away anything as if he’s saying “I literally have no idea what you’re talking about”. Yeah, I suspect we’ll see a bit of that today.

Then he’ll actually give some indication on the team that will play on Monday and with some time off for the next couple of weeks until the next game, I do wonder whether he’ll stick with a strong side or just rotate out most of the first team and tell them to bugger off somewhere warm and think about what they’ve done. 

Not that many of them would do that, mind, as they’ve shown they can’t think properly on the football pitch so why change a habit now?

Arsène will bat away comments about his new deal until the end of the season today, but I saw a great Tweet yesterday which I wholeheartedly endorse, which stated that the best thing for all concerned could be for him to announce now that he’s not staying and that would a) give Arsenal time to start the process of finding a new manager, but b) give everyone the opportunity to appreciate the manager and support the team until the end of the season. 

Couldn’t agree more. Of course there is the whole “if he’s not going to be here next season, what difference does it make?” mentality from some of the players, but you’d hope that an announcement of this magnitude would galvanise everyone involved. 

Wouldn’t it just be great to win the FA Cup as Arsène’s last game in charge of the club? I’d love to see that. 

But in order to do that we’d need some answers now and, quite frankly, I don’t think we’re going to get anything until the end of the season. That might work for Arsène but it certainly wouldn’t work for Arsenal and I’d have thought that a man who quite clearly loves the club – no matter what any naysayer might say – wouldn’t want to leave this hapless board a short window with which to try to appoint a successor. 

Good lord, I’ve just had a thought about our board and them being the ones making the decision on the next manager, it feels very much like the FA and that scares the crap out of me. The FA always go for the safe choice with a manager. They go for the path of least resistance and even in Sam Allardyce – before he was greedy and stupid – it was supposed to be a simple and steady manager. The proverbial ‘safe pair of hands’. That’s my worry. My worry is the Arsenal board won’t pick a winner, they’ll pick somebody who will ask the fewest questions. They’ll plump for the chap who will coach the team and be the ‘nice boy’ appointment. They’ll make the wrong choice. After all, they’ve not had to worry about that for 20 years, with the last four at least being a safer bet to not make a difficult decision, so to keep the manager on again. 

This current ‘Old Boys Club’ set up is a disaster waiting to happen. If Arsène goes, I can see the list of good European managers whittled away so that a random ‘David Moyes’ type manager is brought in. All I can say to that is: Eek.

But something has to give. Let’s take the ‘eek’ now, rather than the apathy, because that’s the option if Arsène does stay on for two more years. Eek over Apathy for me folks.

Eek over apathy.

Right, I’m going now, to do other things in my life not related to The Arsenal. 

Over and out.

1. When you hear “The Invincibles” you know we’re not talking about Preston North End. For those unaware, Arsenal were dubbed “The Invincibles” after completing the 2003-04 Premier League season undefeated (26-12-0).

   Arsenal haven’t won the Premier League since the incredible undefeated season. Rivals such as Manchester United continue racking up the trophies, but guess what? Only the Gooners have a golden trophy.

2. You miss Highbury. Arsenal Stadium was where the Gooners played in Highbury, North London between 1913 and 2006. A ton of legends poured their blood, sweat and tears into bringing Arsenal glory at Highbury.

   There’s no doubt that the Emirates is a much better stadium for today, but every Gooners fan that’s old enough to remember Highbury will get a little nostalgic every time they think of their memories at the stadium.

3. We all still hate Robin Van Persie for abandoning us after we suffered through so much. The constant injuries that kept him off the field were fine, but taking off to Manchester United after one healthy season? Unforgivable.

   Speaking of players us Gooners fan hate with a passion. Who here doesn’t hate Sam Nasri? He’s another traitor, but not only that, he regularly talked poorly about Arsenal supporters after his move to Manchester City.

4. We strongly believe in the curse of the #9. The curse starts back in Arsene Wenger’s first year (1996-97) when the #9 jersey was worn by Paul Merson. Merson left after Wenger’s first year, as he chased the money at Middlesbrough.

   Nicolas Anelka wore #9 next and the youngster had all of the potential in the world. However, we was sold two years after joining the club. Anelka’s career slowly fell apart, while #9 remains cursed on Arsenal.

   Will #9 remained cursed throughout Arsenal history? Based on Arsenal’s transfer luck, the team may have a better chance winning the USA lottery than signing a #9 that’ll pan out.

5. We always remember and constantly remind other fans that we were the first team in North London. Tottenham was in Middlesex until incorporated into Greater London back in 1965. Although, explaining this to a Spurs fan is torture.

What are some other signs you’re an Arsenal fan?

The Gooners are sitting 2^nd place on the Premier League this season (2016-17) behind Man City. Could this be the year that Arsenal break the drought and win the Premier League trophy for the first time in over a decade? We’re only nine games into the campaign, but Arsenal are sitting on 20 points with a 6-2-1 record.

Theo Walcott leads the team in scoring this season with 5 goals in 9 matches. Alexis Sanchez (4), Mesut Ozil (3), Santi Cazorla (2) and Laurent Koscielny (2) all have scored multiple goals already too.

If you’re a fan of Arsenal you have to be liking how they’ve looked on the pitch. The question now is whether they can maintain their play throughout the entire campaign. They don’t have a transfer budget like Man City, but Arsenal are talented enough to win the league.

I find internationals competitions a very strange bubble of football when it comes to players and their perceived value. We see scenarios where players don’t want to talk about domestic matters because they want to focus on their international side. Personally I don’t get those kind of statements, but perhaps I’m different to most other people who love the game, but I do find it a little weird. You’re never truly going to switch off what’s happening in the rest of your life. You’re a human and by your very nature you are prone to natural human emotions. 

I wonder if that’s happened to Lukaku? After all, he’s been intimating to the world that he’s offski from Everton, but there’s no announcement yet because he’s focused on the Euro’s. Apparently. You wouldn’t know it though after Belgium’s display against the Italians. He was one of many Belgian’s to disappoint yesterday evening. Italy didn’t look amazing, but I guess they never really do, but the Belgium team looked like a collective of players who all believe their own hype and the amount of money they’re valued at transfer-wise.

It then struck me last night whilst watching Lukaku; this posturising over your future, if it is intended to use this tournament as a platform, could go completely the opposite direction for you if you replicate that kind of performance. Rather than a summer of big clubs fighting over you for a megabucks transfer fee, you could find yourself priced out by your existing club, with other clubs seeing the increased outlay as a gamble on a player who has just been ‘hit and miss’ on a big stage.

Most of the players will see this tournament as an opportunity to put themselves in the shop window, but with plenty of them, it’ll probably do more harm than good for their options.

I remember how Arshavin’s stock skyrocketed after Euro 2008 and the players agent quite happily touted interest in Real Madrid or Barcelona. He didn’t get an instant move, but we pursued him in to January 2009 and he got that big deal he was hoping for. Despite an initially impressive start to his Arsenal career, his decline seemed to be quite rapid, if I recall. He was the very definition of a luxury player and in the Russian team of 2008 they accommodated him in the team at every opportunity. Arsenal at the time simply couldn’t have a luxury player in the team that everything had to be build around in the attacking positions; we had Fabregas who was at his Arsenal peak at that time and that was who the team was built around. 

Arshavin had traded off his good Euro 2008 showing to get a big money move, But perhaps his is a story that the brightest shining star in a European competition, doesn’t always go on to replicate domestically and often doesn’t provide the greatest value.

Perhaps it’s all just about the cash. Perhaps it’s just about the agent fees and signing on fees. Any £60million deal for a player is going to command plenty of kick backs for the individuals involved, so perhaps that’s the main reason players wait until after the tournament, like Morata is doing now. But I just think it’s short-sighted. It’s looking for the buck now instead of picking the right club that will suit who and what you are as a professional footballer. Choose wisely and raise your value by performing domestically, then use international tournaments as experiences, rather than more opportunities to feather your own nest.

Anyway, just some thoughts, from a football fan who is perhaps getting a little too old and cynical these days!

Well, firstly, England have taken up the Spurs’ing mantle. What with bottling a game by dominating and still managing to bugger it up in the end. I actually think England didn’t play that badly, but perhaps that’s because I was pretty inebriated by the time I started watching, so my frame of reference is a little off. Jack got some time off the bench and I just wonder if he’ll be unleashed from the start in at least one of the group stages. Woy was the guy who wanted to bring Jack, he’s the one who has been given plenty of game time in friendlies to prove his fitness, but the only way he’ll really be able to light up in the middle of the park (no, not literally, people) is to be chucked in from the start. 15 minutes here or there isn’t going to really help anybody, especially when you’re a central midfielder, as you need to get in to the swing of the game. You need to be given plenty of touches, you need to grow in to a game. It isn’t like being a centre forward where you can be completely off pace, yet still be a hero by banging in a winning in the dying seconds, midfield requires a player to be involved and in action in build up. So you need to instantly get into the pace of the game and that’s not an easy thing to do.

I have also learned that Arsenal are pretty well represented across all nations at these Euro’s. Obvious statement I know, but I was trying to work out over the weekend, how many back-to-back matches there would be before Arsenal are not represented with at least one player from the first game in the competition. It turns out that it was five. Turkey and Croatia yesterday broke the streak, but we’ve now had seven games and Arsenal players have been involved in six of them (if you count Szczesny for Poland, which I do). I don’t really know if there’s anything remotely interesting to glean from that, but it’s kept me entertained for a couple of days.

I thought Mesut did OK yesterday. He got a fantastic assist for Schweinsteiger, from a fantastically pinpoint pass in the dying seconds, whilst never really putting a foot wrong. But he didn’t sparkle as much as I thought he would. He was tidy, efficient with the ball, but it was Tony Kroos who dictated play more yesterday. Kroos is a fantastic player and you can see why he’s so highly regarded, although the idea that Real Madrid might use him as a makeweight for getting Paul Pogba, seems madness to me. It smacks of Özil/Bale and Madrid’s never-ending pursuit to break the bank every year to sign whatever player is the latest ‘flavour of the month’. Just because you sign loads of great players, it doesn’t mean you can just cram as many of them in to a system as possible, which is why they don’t win the league as much as they’d expect to. You’d have thought they’d have learned that lesson by now, but clearly not.

Anyway, more football to be feasted on today, but I just have to get this pesky ‘work’ thing out of the way first. See thee in the morrow.