We’ve all been talking it up for a few weeks now. The ol’ “They’ve got some tough games coming up in February” narrative was what was keeping many of us warm during those cold January nights. As our players succumbed to injury, as our attack looked like it was stuttering, it all started to see a little forlorn and the Villa 2-2 at The Emirates did – I’ll admit – have me openly saying that it’s probably ‘done’ for us.

I still think it is 80 – 90% Liverpool’s title and if you look at any of the probability and statistical reporting on the likelihood of Arsenal overcoming what is now an eight-point lead, you’d probably see similar figures based on data modelling. But as the old trope goes, football is a funny old game and at least last night’s draw has Arsenal fans clinging on to that little bit of hope that remains. Abacuses are out, permutations are being analysed, “what if’s” will be pondered in the pubs in the Highbury area come Saturday’s kick off against West Ham.

But the facts remain: three points at home to the Hammers (by far not a forgone conclusion given the scars of last season) brings us to within five of Liverpool. A helping hand from a – frankly – average City side (in comparison to previous iterations we’ve been up against) at the weekend and we could see ourselves within touching difference.

IF WE DO OUR JOB.

That’s been our struggle at crunch points so far this season. When  Liverpool have slipped up we have also done the same. But we are running out of road so if there is going to be some kind of miraculous close down (miraculous because of how decimated we are with injuries, with poor ol’ Tomiyasu the latest who’ll be on the treatment table until the end of the year, which the club confirmed this week), then we are going to have to move now and move with the players we have available.

One of which I think none of us saw coming in Ethan Nwaneri. I mean, we saw it coming in the sense he was our youngest ever Premier League debutant, he was good in pre season and he’s started to really look impressive when called upon so far in 2025. But I don’t think there’s an Arsenal fan out there who could have told you that he would be the shining light and hope from our attack come February, if you’d have asked them in August last year.

It’s already been talked about on social media and also in the big podcasts (particularly Arseblog and James), but that kid has absolute ice in his veins. If Bergkamp was our Ice Man, what is Nwaneri?

Ice Kid?

Whatever he is, we can be very thankful that he looks like a 28-year-old in a 17-year-old’s body, because he’s followed up his Giron Man of the Match performance with the same against Leicester at the weekend and all eyes are on whether he can follow that up on Saturday when we play West Ham. There will be more of a look at them and how they’re doing tomorrow, but for now let’s focus on this kid Ethan. He’s been a revelation. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to state that he’s been one of the reason’s we’re still even slightly dreaming about challenging for the title. His goal against Brighton, his performance against Leicester (in which he got an assist), is phenomenal. He’s 17-year’s old, for crying out loud. SEVENTEEN. That is astounding that he’s schooling professional’s who have a solid decade of experience and knowhow in elite football. He has no fear. But more than that, he is cool too. He comes across as so unimposing. He just gets on the pitch, does his stuff, get’s himself on the bus. Goals are greeted with finger wags. I imagine he gets home after playing for one of the biggest clubs in the country, gets his mum and dad asking him how was his day, he shrugs, puts on his slippers, flicks on the TV and says “yeah, alright. Got an assist”.

“Oh that’s nice love. Do you want a sandwich?”

The key for him will be to plot a trajectory which takes him to the stratosphere. That’s difficult. Footballing history is littered with teenagers who arrive on the scene, peak early, then never reach their potential. ESR was – I thought – going to be one of the greats at the club. But injury and an inability to find a position to make his own curtailed it. Then there are other examples like Iwobi, who I remember absolutely bossing a game against Everton as a teenager. He’s gone on to have a great career and fair play to him, but these two were two that I imagines being mainstays of their international teams and Arsenal for the best part of a decade.

But football isn’t linear. There are lots of variables and Nwaneri will need to have a bit of luck with injuries, the right people around him, as well as the right coaching to set him up to be a future great. The Ice Kid has all of the raw materials to be a superstar. It just needs to be managed and cultivated in the right way to set him on that path.

And with that I’m going to call time on today’s musings. I’ll be back tomorrow with my usual obsessive look at what West Ham fans are thinking ahead of the 3pm on Saturday. Catch you then.

At 5-1, they were singing in the rain.

It’s good to know that the dying embers of hostility still exist for them. For us it was an opportunity to show that we have some marvellous young talent that is rising up through the ranks of Hale End.

Mikel Arteta is a man who wants to win. He is a ruthless manager who knows what he wants and regardless of the competition, he wants to win football match after football match. That’s why in recent season’s we’ve gone in to Europa League games, or FA Cup games, in which he’s named strong squads. So in his press conference on Tuesday where he said we don’t have enough first team players fit and there would need to be some first teamers out there, I did believe for a few hours leading up to the game yesterday evening, that he’d select a pretty strong squad to play the Wanderers from League One. And to be fair to him, he did name a few first team surprise inclusions yesterday, with Saka and Calafiori both being selected for the starting XI. I speculated that I thought Rice might start and he duly did, but I wasn’t prepared for the inclusion of a 16-year-old Jack Porter in goal, that’s for sure.

Perhaps it speaks to the faith the manager has in some of these players, perhaps it speaks to the necessity of needing to give some of the regulars a rest, but The Arsenal had a very youthful feel to it with Lewis-Skelly, Josh Nichols, Ethan Nwaneri to it, but we still had a strong enough side to batter Bolton and after 16 minutes and Declan Rice’s first goal to set us off, it kind of felt that way.

It sounds like a massive gamble playing a 16-year-old in goal, but the reality was that this was an experienced enough back four – despite their collective ages – with the technical quality to keep the ball away from the youngster and for that first half at least, Bolton’s only real threat came from a couple of corners in which they naturally pumped the ball right underneath Porter’s nose to test him. He punched one away and if I recall rightly the other was headed away by one of the Arsenal outfield players.

We ran this game pretty much throughout and when our second goal eventually came around thanks to a fine ball by Lewis-Skelly to Sterling, followed by a good cross low in to the box, the ‘new Starboy’ Nwaneri was there to bundle the ball home to make what really did feel like the match winning goal. Half time went, I was treated to some nice hospitality in a box (never done that before, so was a bit different from my usual Block Five position by the corner flag), it all felt rather comfortable and we awaited to see how this team would fair in the second half.

And only four minutes in to that half it really was done and dusted, with Nwaneri getting his second of the night from a sloppy ball in the Bolton third, to give this kid a first team debut of some reckoning. That second one secured him man-of-the-match on the night, but he might have won it without it and afterwards when you’ve somebody with as exacting ‘fogging estandards’ as Arteta saying things like “You can tell he’s playing without pressure, with confidence, with a way of making decisions that tells you that the boy is ready at this level”, you know that this kid has something about him. I like the way he can quickly swivel and turn his body; he has an ability to spin one way and then the next so quickly and that helps him to create a yard or two of space, but he’s also got the eye for a pass and when to make it and when to drive and dribble with the ball. Arsenal has a good history of boy wonders (Adams, Cole, Wilshere, Fabregas, Saka) and this lad looks like another one off the production line. And to bag two goals like this will have given him so much confidence that he can take in to the first team proper. We are low on numbers in midfield, so to see a young player like this take his chance as he did, not only is it heart-warming from an Arsenal fan perspective, but it is also valuable from a squad depth perspective, because with each game like this Arteta knows that he count count on Nwaneri if needed.

I would have liked Saka to have played a little less and I’d be lying if I didn’t say a few Hail Mary’s in my head to protect Havertz, Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Rice for the weekend, but we got through it all and there were a few more goals to add in as well. Raheem Sterling is off the mark with the easiest goal he’ll score in his career and Havertz added to his tally for the season with a smart finish. We’ve been repeatedly told that Havertz doesn’t get enough goals and although this is a ‘lesser’ competition, it still adds to his total tally for the season and that makes it three now before September has ended. He’ll probably have an ambition to beat last season’s tally of 14 goals and with three already you’d think he’s in a decent enough space to achieve that marker this season.

Other than that there’s not really a lot to make of this game, which finished with Arsenal fielding a lad at the back called Maldini who I swear was in the Harry Potter movies. He’s quite a unit but did his job well enough and we saw the game out comfortably and with a trip to Preston in the next round secured.

And now attention turns back to the Premier League on Saturday. There are some rumours coming out that Raya isn’t 100% nailed on to make it, but Neto will be back for that one and you’d think we should have a number of players who will be rested and ready for the challenge of the Foxes.

Back tomorrow with some thoughts ahead of that game but, until then, enjoy your Thursday and basking in another Arsenal win.

We had goals, we had drama, we had teams going for matches and not relying on own goals, penalties, boring sufferball; it was how the Euro’s or any international tournament should be played. Not what we’re all now used to if you’re of a certain vintage i.e. cagey risk-averse football for the most part with the occasional moment of magic sprinkled in.

It’s kind of why I’m never overly-enamoured with international football, if I’m honest, because it never really lives up to the hype of club football and you never get the same quality of football match as a neutral. There never seems to be as much movement, quality players often seem to take a step down and it just isn’t as much fun. It’s only saving grace is that it happens during the summer when football is normally on a short hiatus, which is why it becomes mildly palatable.

But yesterday felt like there was some football to be had. The Romanians kept the game with a little bit of jeopardy for as long as they could before the Dutch ended up sealing it through former Arsenal lad Donyell Malen. I’ve seen him a little bit in this tournament and kept an eye on him because of The Arsenal connection, but let’s be honest here, it doesn’t feel like he’s the sort of player I’d be desperate for us to go out and buy for us next season. He’s 25, his value is rumoured to be around £35million, he’s versatile having played 24 times for Dortmund at right wing, 11 left wing and 3 as a centre forward last season, but he has seemed a little wasteful to me in this tournament. He bagged 15 goals and five assists from wide positions last year but he’s not exactly going to displace any of our players we currently have. So whilst I’m happy he’s gone on from Arsenal and made a career at some decent clubs, it doesn’t feel like the right kind of fit and I doubt he’d want to come in and get League and FA Cup minutes when Saka needs to be rotated.

In the second game I had a lot more fun watching Turkey versus the Austrians and not just because I had Turkey in my sweepstake. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun to see my £2 advance to the quarter finals, but it was more fun to see both Turks and Austrians have a proper go at each other. There was some good old-fashioned set piece goals, there was some back to the walls defending, as well counter-attacking football that had you thinking that the game was on a knife-edge right until the last few seconds. Nobody likes to see games peter out when you’re a neutral, so I enjoyed seeing that go right to the end and then the response from the Turkish fans and players was lovely. You could see how much it meant to them. I also thought that lad Ferdi Kadioglu, who I think we’ve been linked with, had a pretty good game indeed. He loves to run at defnders, he’s definitely got the ability to beat a man and I also thought he did a pretty stand-up job in a defensive sense. You could see why some clubs like Dortmund, Barca and us have been linked and given there are strong noises about us getting a left back in this summer then his ability to play there, but also as a right back feels like a natural fit for the links. But could he play that inverted role? Last season he operated primarily as a left back and made nine appearances as a right back but the season before he played 25 as a right back, nine in right midfield, nine at left back, nine in left midfield and once as a left winger. This kid looks like he’s a good dribbler of the ball and his eye for a pass looked decent enough, so maybe this is something to keep an eye on.

I suspect we’ll be focusing more on outputs right now though, with Sambi Lokonga rumoured to be attracting interest from Sevilla. The noises have mainly come from the Spanish press and they’re saying Sevilla won’t go above €8million, which is pretty low given he did well for Luton last season, but Sevilla are in one of the more precarious financial positions of the Spanish clubs and so I can understand why they’d want the player for a cut down price. But we paid €17.5million for him and he’s still of an age that you’d expect a decent return, so my hope is that we hold firm on our rumoured valuation of the player at around £10million. That doesn’t seem unreasonable to me; this kid has talent, he’s still young, he will go somewhere and make it work, but let’s not get shafted on the fee. Also, when he does go, let’s have a hefty sell on fee. The last thing we want is him to go to a club like Sevilla, absolutely bang then having got him for peanuts, we end up seeing them sell him on for €30million in a couple of season’s time. We need to be telling clubs that it’s 10million, but oh by the way, we’ll take 33% of any future sell on fee, thank you very much.

That’s supposedly why Bologna want €40million for Calafiori, because two season’s ago he was at Basel and made 34 appearances there before playing regularly for Bologna last season. They picked him up for €4million and Basel agreed a 40% sell on fee. So the Italians want to make sure they get north of €25million for themselves from the deal. We need to be doing the same deals for every player that leaves The Arsenal because those small values like we get for Omari Hutchinson who went to Ipswich, can quickly add up if you do those deals regularly.

It means you can speculate a little more on players. Imagine if we paid roughly £15million for Sambi, sold him for £8million, but get a 33% sell on. If he bangs for his next club and in two year’s time is sold for, let’s say, £21million (around €25million). That would be £7million in Arsenal’s coffers and would mean we have effectively made our money back on a player who was alright, wasn’t quite at the level, but we managed to do some business that works for us. That’s where Arsenal need to be smart. Less “sell your best players for £100million” and more player acquisitions that we try, if they don’t work out, we can still move on and keep refreshing the squad.

Anyway, bit of a longer one from me today with those musings, so I’ll pause for now and let you get on with the rest of your day.

Have a good one peeps. I’m doing the Same Old Arsenal summer series tonight so if you fancy joining us at 7.30pm, you can do so here.

I’ve also seen a couple of people suggest that Arsenal weren’t completely unhappy about some of the fact the noises were being made quite public about their interest; the suggestion has been that they were already looking elsewhere at their options and so if this occupies the thoughts and minds of the media and fans, then it would allow them to go about their business in quiet and relative peace.

That does feel like it’s quite ‘on brand’ with the football admin team in the last couple of season’s to be fair. The Havertz rumours emerged and then within a few days he was signed. The Raya one came towards the end of the window and surprised a lot of people, mainly because we had Ramsdale and so people were a little confused as to why we would do that. The Fabio Vieira deal was almost completely random and happened in what almost felt like an overnight stealth move by the club, then the season before that we also had Tomiyasu arriving late in the window. Arsenal, Arteta and Edu (as well as the group of people at Arsenal who all work on transfers in the dead of night and behind closed doors) have been getting pretty good at transfer espionage, it has to be said.

So with the news that Sesko signing a new deal now out in the open, the beady eyes of the media and Arsenal fans will become a little more laser focused and I wonder in which direction they’ll pivot next? Will they keep the centre forward powder dry and look at a more versatile forward player? Perhaps. One things for sure, somebody will have to be moved on, because we’re top heavy in terms of talent right now. Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli, Saka, Havertz and Trossard all get regular game time fighting for three positions, whilst Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson have found game time hard to come by. Between those two players they shared around 1,300 minutes, which averages at around 15 games between them (I divided those minutes by 90 for ease of calculation). The actual number of starts was 10 for Eddie and one for Reiss, so if we’re looking at bringing in a higher calibre of player, if they’re taking Eddie and Reiss’ minutes then they’re still only making 11 starts and probably a dozen or so sub appearances, max.

So the sell to any incoming player is going to be tough, unless **conspiracy theory alert** one of those more regular players is moved on. Perhaps that will happen with a Gabriel Jesus, but I can’t see Arteta wanting to shift on Trossard, Havertz or Martinelli, so maybe that’s why there has been some mutterings of Arsenal being open to Gabriel Jesus leaving if the right offer came in. The right offer has to be a sizeable chunk of change though; if we move Nelson, Nketiah and Gabby J on in a summer that suddenly feels like we’re short.

That’s why I think Arsenal’s move for an attacking player will, I think, almost certainly be one that is versatile and can play across the front three. A player in their early 20s who can be a bit like Gabriel Jesus when he was 22, perhaps? I mean, I’d love somebody like Rodrygo from Real Madrid and there has been some noises about a few English clubs like Liverpool interested, but to prize him from the Spanish champions would probably cost north of £100million and I just don’t see that happening.

Apparently Chelsea are interested in Alvarez from City but I can’t see City giving us somebody like that in a million years.

Matheus Cunha from Wolves is a couple of year’s younger than Gabriel Jesus and can play across the front three, but given they signed him a year ago for around £45million, I can’t see us getting him for less than £80million and given he’s had a couple of injuries, I suspect that’s one that we should park.

So who is a young, versatile, up and coming player who we could potentially look to invest in, who would accept taking those Eddie and Reiss minutes? Maybe there’s one right on our own doorstep? Ethan Nwaneri is listed as a ‘next gen wonderkid’ by Goal on their website here and although I’ve poo-poo’d it on the Same Old Arsenal pod already this summer (mainly because of his age and how that’s a lot of pressure for somebody so young, rather than his actual ability – it’s clear he’s hugely talented), the more I look at those Eddie and Reiss minutes, the more I do wonder if Arteta might be tempted to chuck them his way in 2024/25. It’s a tough one though, because with Gabriel Jesus not always fit, with Martinelli having a few injury problems this season just gone, if your immediate ‘go to’ is somebody like Nwaneri at right wing, or at centre forward (he’s played their for the U23s a few times I think, although I’ll admit I don’t really watch it, I’m just going on what I heard), feels like a stretch.

So I do think Arsenal will dabble in the market for a forward player, but they have to get this one right, because you don’t want to stunt Nwaneri’s growth if he is going to evolve in to the next Saka off the production line. Striking that balance between giving space to young talent and making sure you have enough to compete with the monster that is 115 Charges FC is a really tough one and I don’t envy the club’s position when trying to find those marginal gains that could get us that extra two or three points that get us over the line.

But, as the common saying goes, “that’s why they pay you the big bucks”. That’s the task that is in front of Arteta and Edu and that’s why I’m pleased that they may be taking their time over what move is the right move.

Ok, I’m done for today I think. Back tomorrow as always. Also going to do our ‘one in, one out, one to ‘bang’ tomorrow evening too, so will give you more details of that on tomorrow’s blog.

Catch you all then.

Yeah, me neither, with the transfer stuff started to get old now and the rumours all feeling a little stale. Outbid for Raphinha and therefore off the table and out the running. United supposedly in for Lisandro Martinez. Gabriel Jesus still not announced. There’s really not a lot going on right now.

I reckon the club might do the Jesus announcement soon though. The masses are starting to get twitchy and with the Scum about to announce the signing of that little pr*ck Richarlison to their ranks, there’s a few people who are getting a bit antsy.

I don’t know if I’m just a bit tired/hungover this morning, but I’m struggling to get up the energy to really care too much about what any team is doing, including ourselves. What will be will be and my hope is that we can get our deals all done soon and have a ‘thank you and goodnight, that’s us done for another summer’ press conference sooner rather than later.

I suspect it won’t be until next week that we hear from the manager though, as we don’t start pre season games until next Friday when we travel to Germany to play Nürnberg. So I suspect the club will fly on Wednesday, have a day in Germany training and maybe there are some media duties by the manager. Maybe we bring in more than Jesus before then but I’m quite cool about what we have and how we’re starting pre season.

Don’t get me wrong, I want us to do more, but I am finding myself reminding myself just what young talent we already have in our ranks that we are all hoping will have an even better season.

Ramsdale, Gabriel, White, Tomiyasu, Sambi, Ødegaard, Smith Rowe, Saka, Martinelli and Nketiah are all of the sort of age that we should all be expecting them to improve and be better than they were last season. And that’s exciting. Imagine if we get more top performances from those defenders like we did last season. Imagine that Sambi starts to look the part as a future Partey 2.0. Imagine if Smith Rowe, Martinelli, Saka and Nketiah all get more goals each than they did last season. That in itself is cause for excitement.

Last season in the Premier League Saka had 11, ESR 10, Martinelli 6 and Nketiah 5. Now imagine that they can up that contribution. Let’s pick some potentially realistic numbers:

An extra four for Saka to take him to 15.

An extra four for Martinelli to take him to 10.

An extra one for ESR so he’s on 11.

Eddie to bag an extra five to get him on double figures as the back up striker so he’s up to 10.

That’s an extra 14 goals in the side this coming season. I’ve not even mentioned that we should be expecting Gabriel Jesus to at least bang 15. That should be his minimum target. If that happens we’re up to 29 extra goals. Of course we have more games like the Europa League, but across all competitions if this Arsenal side can add 29 goals, that will have a massive impact on the success of our season.

I haven’t even touched on Ødegaard. He got seven goals and four assists. But I’m sure there’s a few people around who have mentioned that he has one of the highest chance creation rates in the league last season. Imagine what he could do with a proper striker who isn’t waddling around the pitch offering nothing to our attack like we had for large chunks of last season? His numbers could take a big boost too and maybe they do if those lads mentioned about all manage to improve on their own metrics.

Last night as I was walking to the pub for some work leaving drinks I was speaking to a Leeds fan who asked me if I was excited for the season. I thought about it for a minute and then those young players and the potential for them to all get better came into my mind, front and centre, then I responding with a “actually, for the first time in a few years, I really am excited for the new season!” to him. That’s a nice feeling to have. It’s a positive feeling to have. It’s a good place to be in.

That’s where it feels right now from my perspective – a good place we’re in. Signings will help, but I’m already looking forward to the big kick off in about five weeks’ time.

Catch you all tomorrow.

I hope those Arsenal players are feeling the same and with Tomiyasu pictures and videos released by the official site it has got me all the more excited. All being well and Martinelli aside, we will have a full strength, full rested, team against Brentford. As I said on last night’s ‘Same Old Arsenal‘ show we SHOULD be feeling positive and we SHOULD be hopeful of a win, without being too overly optimistic. Brentford have already done us once and they’ll be fancying a gift from a club who can be very generous at times – see Everton in December as a classic example of such charity from those Arsenal players – but there is a good feeling about this crop of guys and with over a week to prepare and get their bodies in tip top shape, I am expecting a performance of intensity and drive in just over three days time. We need some revenge over Brentford and I’d prefer it came this coming weekend, thank you very much.

We’ll be without Martinelli but I don’t think I’ve seen many Arsenal fans fear what lies before us in his absence. He has been a very good player for us since December; he’s contributed goals, he’s pressed, harried and looks every bit the Arsenal starter. But in Emile Smith Rowe we have a guy who shone in that wide left position at times last season and who looked pretty ace against The Scum when we played them at home early in 2021. His link up play is something I’ll be looking at with Tierney and if the two of those players can connect well then that left hand side can bear fruit for us in an attacking sense.

But it does feel like those partnerships are being forged over the pitch right now, doesn’t it? Gabriel and White, Partey and Xhaka, Odegaard drifting across to connect with Saka a little more, Tierney and Smith Rowe is one I think could work, plus you have Tomiyasu and Partey often finding themselves with those passes on the slant that can open up teams. These are the initial signs of a good crop of players coming together and as fans we’re buying in to that too.

It’s amazing what a difference a year/18 months can make. After seeing Arsenal make mistakes in the market, buying up journeymen players on big wages, on seeing a team of players that we don’t really connect with, it suddenly feels like we have a core that we all seem to, well, like. It’s nice. And I’ve been trying to figure out why we all like them so much. Home grown/British? Maybe. Because they are all young and we can project linear development? I think certainly.

If Gabriel is this good now, how good will he be in three years time? Saka and Smith Rowe are in their early 20s, so surely in their mid 20s they’ll be super elite, right?

These are the kinds of things that go through my head. As fans we want success. We want the trophies and we want them sooner rather than later, preferably right now. But we are also realistic and whilst we can all see that we simply aren’t able to lay a glove on Liverpool and City at the moment, if by having a young crop of lads who show steady improvement, we can project success a couple of years down the line, then we’re all a little more tolerant when those mistakes by young players inevitably happen. If I see Ramsdale chuck one in his own net them I’m thinking about the times he’s saved us and the fact he’ll use this as a learning piece, such is his personality. But also I’m thinking “the lad is 23. With a bit more experience at the top in a couple of years this won’t happen in the slightest”.

Of course the reality is that progression in football isn’t linear. A 20-year-old wide forward doesn’t increase his goal and assist output by five goals every season in a uniformed manner until he hits 30. There will be seasons in which it feels like there is stasis. But the important thing is that we see the right behaviours and the right signs from these players that they are willing to learn and develop. They have to be likeable.

And I think nearly all of our players are. We have a good crop who all look like they have decent personalities. That is the foundations for which Arteta has built this team. But now he needs to turn them in to winners and that is why this Top Four race feels like a massive development piece if this team is to kick on and compete at the top of the league. Get Top Four this season and they will all feel another few inches taller. They’ll all have even more belief that they belong there and it means next season we’ll see them grow a little more. It feels like we need this to see the rise of this collective and I’m just praying that this next collection of matches can get us going on a run, because April will 100% involve some slip ups so we need as many points now as possible.

Just some food for thought for you on a Wednesday morn. Have a good one and I’ll catch you in the morrow.

So too is the realisation that by Monday things could look very good, a bit ‘meh’, or a bit bleak. It could all swing on these next two games and so my hope is that those players with knocks can overcome them and be ready to play from tomorrow. I suspect we’ll know more today because there is bound to be a press conference ahead of the trip to Anfield and that’s where the team news will tell us all.

• Has Granit Xhaka recovered from COVID and has he tested negative?
• Is Tomiyasu over his knockthat kept him away from the team at the weekend?
• The same for Emile Smith Rowe – is he available?
• Can somebody give Nuno Tavares a hug?
• Is there an available member of staff who can lock Cedric Soares in the toilets at London Colney before they leave today?

So many questions we need answering and hopefully Mikel can provide those answers today. I’d go as far as to say that based on what the outcome of that press conference is will affect my mood this afternoon, because if we have what looks like a strong enough team, then I’ll feel more confident ahead of these two games. If we are still missing a host of players for tomorrow then you have to wonder what will unfold. Originally I thought that Liverpool would play a weakened team in this competition but I’m becoming more and more convinced they will go full strength tomorrow night. That’s why they have cheated the system, because they want their first teamers back for the game, which is worrying as an Arsenal fan because let’s face it, we don’t exactly have a stellar record up there in the last ten years or so.

What will be key tomorrow is just to keep the score down to a respectable level – assuming Liverpool go strong with their team – and then try to win it at The Emirates. More on that game tomorrow but in terms of the next five days if we lose tomorrow and then get beaten at the Toilet Bowl, come Monday morning it will all feel a little dreary in the Arsenal world. That would make it four defeats on the spin in all competitions and my biggest worry is that the confidence that this young team has shown will soon dissipate as quickly as it arrived. Over the Christmas period we had swagger and were looking good. We were shafted against City but looked good. Sunday was a shocker but tomorrow evening a good performance can bring us back on track and repeating that at the weekend will really have fans excited.

And if we can get noises that this Vlahovic chap is on the verge of signing then it will only boost morale amongst the fanbase even more. As Mikel has said we have made good progress, we’ve all talked about the connection we feel with this team, but for all of the positivity and appreciation shown, for all of those games at the Emirates in which it has felt fans and the team are as one and connected, we have won nothing yet. The good work and the good feeling is great but to really make that step up you need to start doing it consistently enough to win trophies. Alright, the League Cup is hardly the pinnacle of success in the game, but it represents the first little step in to establishing this team as a potential future Arsenal side that is great. In 1987 George Graham’s side beat Liverpool in the final to win the League Cup. That is widely regarded as the start of the success that saw us win the league in 1989, then in 1991, followed by FA and League Cup success in 1993 and the Cup Winners Cup in 1994. Six cups in seven years and if you’re old enough as an Arsenal fan you’ll remember the names and see them as legends. This young team could do the same, but they have to get over the line.

In 1987 it was Lukic, O’Leary, Adams, Rocastle, Davis, Thomas and Groves who all stuck around for 89 and most of those players played a big part in getting Arsenal back to the top of the division. In 2022 we have Ramsdale, White, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Tierney, Partey, Saka and Smith Rowe who we all kind of feel that they could be on the cusp of that greatness, but they have to overcome periods like this. Beating up the smaller teams is one thing but winning against a big team away from home is still on the ‘to do’ list. We won’t have Partey for those next two games but if we can have the rest of those players fully fit – or a variation of – tomorrow and on Sunday, then I’ve got my fingers crossed that the current marker of away wins at big clubs can be passed.

As for the other news, well, there isn’t really much worth talking about given that it’s all still about Vlahovic and potentially Guimarães from Lyon to come in to the club in midfield to cover our current lack of players there. There’s talk about it that’s been going on for a while now and I have to say when these stories are repeated again and again by the press ad nasuem I get a bit bored with it to be honest. I also worry that you get your hopes up on a player joining only to learn that nothing happens by the end of the window, so I don’t think I’ll invest much more time thinking about it. I’ve seen people saying that GUendouzi has similar stats to Guimarães and so we have missed out  on him by flogging him, but the only thing I regret about the whole sorry Guendouzi saga is that Marseille have already agreed a fee for him and will get him for next to nothing given how much we might have got him for. He was a decent but not amazing player for us, his attitude stunk and there were rumours of multiple disciplinary breaches at the Arsenal. There have also been a few noises about his attitude at Marseille but whilst they are still in the honeymoon period with the player, he is playing well. Maybe he’ll turn in to an elite midfielder but the guy I saw was average and thought a bit too much of himself. I’m personally glad we got rid and if Guimarães is even just a slight upgrade on Guendouzi, if we then have a player who will also put his head down and work and not be such a clown half the time, then that’s fine with me.

Right, I think I’ll leave it there for today, things to do and emails to type. You know how it is. Have a good one and I’ll catch you for some pre match thoughts tomorrow.

I don’t know if my subconscious is also trying to manage my expectations too though, because a 1-1 draw away to Liverpool is hardly a rip-roaring rollercoaster ride, is it? I mean don’t get me wrong, I’d bite yer arm off for it right now as we stand, because it’ll maintain that unbeaten run, but in reality it would hardly be a mega statement by the team. Not like winning 2-0 or 3-0 up there would be.

Again, my subconscious probably kicked in and thought “nah, he’ll never buy that, he’ll know it’s a dream, so got to make it realistic”, hence the 1-1. Can’t even tell you who scored. Gets all blurry the more I try to think of it.

Back in the real world and there’s still little going on, other than Folarin Balogun scoring for the under-21s yesterday against the Czech Republic. They won 3-0, he scored the third, which prompted Lee Carsley to say he needs to be playing proper football, rather than the under-23s stuff. He’s spot on by the way. It seems a bit silly that we are in a position that Balogun has barely featured at all for us this season. He is smashing it at the UNder-23s and has clearly evolved beyond that level and you’d have to think he’d be getting more game time if we were in more competitions.

I think he’d certainly have played in some Europa games and he won’t also have played in that game at West Brom if Arteta had more matches to prioritise, but alas here we are, in the middle of November, and he’s had just a few paltry minutes for the first team. I wonder if the plan was to give him more minutes in the League Cup, but because of the disastrous start Arteta has had to field stronger teams to build momentum? If that’s the case I understand, but as I’ve already stated in previous blogs, I have no idea why minutes are being prioritised for Eddie Nketiah. Eddie won’t sign a new deal, he can negotiate to go abroad in January and in the summer he can negotiate with other clubs in England. And the second he has an agreement with another club he’s going to want to protect himself and his value. So as it stands we have ourselves a player whose value we are fattening up, only to get no value from him at all, other than a potential nominal tribunal fee. There’s a good explanation about how that works here.

If Eddie signs with an overseas club in January then his mind is elsewhere and surely there is no way Arteta will want to be playing him for us? If he signs for a club in England or the UK, then that’ll happen in the summer, but nobody can tell me he’ll not be negotiating the details from early next year. And as soon as that’s done then he’ll also be wanting to protect himself for his new club, so he can’t play. So what we have done is play a guy who we will only get a few months out of, instead of a guy who the England-Under21sHead Coach is saying is good enough for top flight football.

I can only assume a loan is in the offing for Balogun in January, because the lack of game time this side of Christmas can’t be allowed to go on. And the fact that most competitions get serious after Christmas means that his game time will probably be all the more restricted.

I don’t want to go too ‘Debbie Downer’ at a time in the season where we are playing well and on form, but the way the situation between these two players has been handled has been shocking. Last January we should have at minimum sent Eddie on loan, yet we kept him around to kick his heels most of the second part of the season. If we’d have sent him on loan it would have given Balogun more minutes as an understudy last year and he might be further along his path. We might also have been able to sell Eddie on this summer just gone, if we’d have seen him play regularly in the Premier League for a team. So For me this whole situation has become quite messy when there have been three or four instances where we could have avoided said mess.

The only other bit of news kicking around is Matteo Guendouzi, who is in the French national squad and has said he doesn’t really want to return to the Arsenal. I’ve got no problem with that really. I thought he was a decent, but not amazing, player and his character has been called in to question on numerous occasions. The only regret I might have will come in the summer when Marseille might get a French international footballer for £10million, which is a steal really when you think about it. I just hope there was a way that Arsenal got a sell on clause to garner some potential future revenue from him, but in reality I doubt it. European teams plead poverty in the summer, but in a couple of years if Guendouzi kicks on they’ll be the first team to want the earth for a player who, frankly, has acted like a spoilt brat at times.

He’s in the past though, we look to the future, and hopefully we can hurry through this dragging international break as quickly as possible. I might just have the football on in the background though – England I mean – just on the off chance we see Smith Rowe make his England debut. That’d be nice for him.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Liverpool are through. Brentford are through. West Ham are having a fine ol’ season so far. Sunderland have made the quarters, as have Leicester. Of course you have the formidable opponent in Chelski. So lots of decent teams in there who will all fancy their chances.

Oh, and the Scum from White Hart Lane too.

Suddenly this draw on Saturday feels intriguing and whilst a home draw with home fan support is always preferable, there’s something in an away day that gets me excited. My only hope is that if it is away, it’s in a location that means I’ll be able to get tickets, which might rule out Brentford given the size of their stadium. But if I could get tickets then it’d be one of the easiest ground in the country for me to get to, so that wouldn’t be too bad at all. But the main point is that Arteta and his charges must surely be looking at this competition as one that has all very winnable opponents in it. Liverpool are the ones that will surely be favourites now, but if Klopp plays a rotated side because they are fighting on multiple fronts, then it could open it up for a team like Arsenal, who have no European football to speak of.

Of course the tie itself comes at the start of a tough festive set of fixtures on 21st and 22nd December, so it does mean that rotation is almost inevitable for both sets of sides. Which means it is then about how much some of these Premier League sides rotate, so I’ll be fascinated to see who we get, if it’s away, plus whether it’s a side that will rotate as much as we will. So far this competition has felt like ‘the fun one’ in which tickets are cheap, I can head along there with my mates, there’s an opportunity to sit together and have a bit of a laugh and we’ve ended up winning all of the games with relative comfort. But if we get drawn against a Spurs, or a Liverpool, for example, it suddenly feels a little bit more like the real deal, doesn’t it?

Anyway, before then we have a Mikel Arteta conference and as I was sifting through the various news sources today to see what’s going on in the world, I came across the post-match words from Arteta on Balogun, which you can also find over at Arseblog news here. I’ve previously spoken about how if there’s one thing Arteta is good at, it is the PR game, because when he’s wheeled out in front of journos or the press he always looks impressive and carries himself well. And he looks like he’s done it again when speaking about Balogun, because his lack of game time has alarmed some of us who want to see a little more of him. My view is that as harsh as this sounds, we should be shunting Nketiah away from the first team in favour of Balogun. He is not signing a new deal, his contract expires in June, he can negotiate with teams from abroad in January and by March there is absolutely no doubt his agent will have found him a domestic club to join.

The noises from the summer were that Arsenal had accepted something from Crystal Palace – loan with obligation, or an outright purchase, I can’t quite remember – but it had broken down due to personal terms. For me that struck an uncomfortable feeling because we all know that if a club thinks it can get a player for free, then it will be more likely to sanction slightly bigger wages and signing on fee for that player. So to me when I heard noises of talks breaking down over the package, my first thought goes to an agent saying to his client “you can get an extra £20k-per-week if you stick it out and go on a free”. This is all speculation, I have no idea what is going on, I am merely putting two and two together here, but would it surprise you if that is not the game that agent and player are playing out?

If that IS the case, then Arsenal should not be adding extra value to Eddie’s wage packet by giving him game time and the opportunity on the pitch, because it doesn’t benefit us at all. But giving game time to Balogun, who the club have just invested in by giving him a new deal, certainly IS in our interest to give him game time. Except he hasn’t been getting that in the slightest. But this is where the Arteta PR machine cranks in to gear, because when he speaks with such authority about how there is a clearly defined path for the player, it makes me believe that it is happening and Arteta and his crew know what they are doing. It provides me with some comfort and my hope is that they have said to him to stay with the squad until January, see if he gets game time, train with the first team as a first team member of the squad, then get some minutes in January on loan if he hasn’t had the chance to find time in an Arsenal shirt. If he gets himself a loan to a decent Championship club or maybe even a Premier League club (although I doubt any team down towards the bottom of the table will be looking to put their eggs in an untrusted basket if they are staring down the barrel of relegation), then gets out there and cuts his teeth well enough, if Arsenal can qualify for Europe next season then he’ll be the main man playing in those League Cup and Europa League games next season. If you go deep in the League Cup and get out of a European group stage you’re talking about three in the League Cup and six in something like the Europa League before Christmas, which is plenty of game time for a player of his age. But he needs to be getting game time now and I suspect the plan has been to be part of the team up to a point, get a loan in January, then come back and play first reserve from the summer.

That all makes sense to me, but I’d still prefer to have seen Eddie play less football and Flo getting more. But we are where we are. As long as this ‘clear plan’ Arteta and his team has comes to fruition, then we have to trust him, as well as trusting Balogun that he does his bit to ensure he keeps growing and evolving until he’s ready to step up and be a first team regular.

Catch you all tomorrow.

That’s a bitter pill to swallow because as I said yesterday Partey will be out in January and whilst the club have only just gone through a big transfer splurge and so shouldn’t have to think too far ahead in terms of the market, I really hope they are starting to look at options for January, because the fixtures aren’t easy and as it stands we’ll be going in to January without our first choice midfielders.

It puts in to contrast just how much things can swing because let’s just look at the opening few week’s of the season. Abject performances, lacking creativity and with a collective of players who failed to convince anyone. We fast forward a few week’s and we’re all on a high because the team has almost completely changed. Now imagine the NLD without Xhaka and Partey, then maybe somebody like Odegaard, if he got injured. It suddenly doesn’t feel as convincing that we pick up the win as easy, does it?

I said yesterday that Xhaka’s injury could be a blessing as much as it is a curse, because it gives opportunities to others to step up, or for Arteta to lean in to the 4-3-3 a little more, but it has also highlighted to me that we are a mini injury crisis away from having to rely on those squad players who were so bang average at the beginning of the season.

There’s no need to hit the panic button yet though. Because we aren’t in Europe we have less probability of picking up a mass crisis due to overloading of football matches. Impact injuries are always going to happen and as long as we don’t have a full treatment room for any period of time, one would hope that we can cope with the odd player breaking down. But Edu and Arteta should be very mindful of how our current situation of joy and higher morale across the club in staff and fans can turn south quickly. Momentum is essential and we need to keep up these wins not just because of the obvious benefit of points and rising up the table, but also because if we do get that knock from player x, or a suspension from player y, those one or two players coming in will find it a lot easier to slot in to a winning team. I think it was Paul Merson who used to say you don’t get tired when you’re in a winning team. I suspect that’s the same in terms of squad players getting themselves back up to speed even if they haven’t played as much. If the engine all around you is purring, perhaps you lift your game a little, even if you don’t have as much rhythm of playing matches consistently.

The good news right now is for Sambi and he’s been speaking about how he got his transfer to Arsenal, how Kompany was the one that was always asking more from him, to push him to step up, which he did, then that earned him his move. I’ve got to say I like this kid a lot. We all know he was captain at Anderlecht and perhaps that has given him the opportunity to step up, but the way he articulates himself, his presence o the pitch, his ability on the ball and progressive passing, it ticks all of the boxes as far as I’m concerned. Everyone is assuming that he will take over from Xhaka and perhaps that will be the case this Saturday, but don’t be surprised if he doesn’t get as much game time as we all think. I don’t think he’s playing every game between now and January, anyway, because I suspect Arteta will be very  mindful of putting too much pressure on. But Sambi has spoken about how he spoke to Arteta about the club which was important, but he then called us ‘legendary’ and said ‘Arsenal are Arsenal’ in terms of needing to be convinced to join. That sort of stuff is great to hear. I hope he has a long and successful career with us.

We’ve got some great young leaders in the side. Sambi looks like he’s one with the way he speaks and conducts himself. Odegaard was apparently helping Tomiyasu before his debut, as the Japanese international has already pointed out in a couple of media sources, Gabriel looks like that natural leader at the back and if you’re sat anywhere near Ramsdale’s goal on matchdays you can hear him barking and cajoling the players in front of him. Saka and Smith Rowe look like quieter lads, but their personalities with the ball and the assertiveness in how they receive it and always show for it, is leadership the likes of which we saw in Fabregas. Aubameyang is the official captain and there has been plenty of question marks over him, but he’ll be a guy who will add experience and support for the younger players and that can only be a good thing, as long as he keeps that happy face on.

I said it after the game in the match review and earlier this week, but it just ‘feels’ like we have a likeable team. Last season those players I have talked about were not here or in the side and instead we had Leno, Luiz, Willian, Elneny, regularly playing. Not exactly the same ‘characters’ or lads that you feel like you can see a bright future under, is it? But this collective of players feels more likeable to me. Of course this is still very early in their careers. We have gutted the team and put a new one in since the international break and there will come a time this season in which they go through a bad patch of form. Maybe it is around the corner and about to hit us. But I hope that these players react in the appropriate way that will get us back on the horse as soon as we’ve fallen off it.

For now we continue ton ride high though. Let’s hope that carries us through to Saturday and we can take that momentum to the South Cost when we face Brighton.

Until tomorrow.

It feels nice to bask in the glow for a bit longer too, actually, given that we haven’t got a game until Saturday. Sure, it stings that we aren’t in Europe and from a financial point of view the clubs accountants will certainly be feeling that particular pinch, but after a game like Sunday’s, as fans, we don’t have to concern ourselves with that right now.  All we need to do is soak up all of the #Content we possibly can. And it’s delicious. Especially when you see some of the salty Spurs pundits who were talking up their side after three games, whilst digging in on Arsenal after our dreadful start.

I will continue to bask in the NLD glory for a couple more days I suspect, but I’m now also looking ahead at our next few fixtures and starting to hope that perhaps we can put a run together. On Saturday coming we have Brighton away. They are in form, Potter has them playing well, but if we have any kinds of aspirations on turning this in to a good season, these are the games we have to win. Then it’s back-to-back home games against Crystal Palace and Villa and I think we owe both of those teams a bit of revenge after last season. Palace got a draw against us during the ‘unpleasentness’ of that poor run last season, whilst Villa beat us 3-0 on our own patch in what was the real nadir for Mikel Arteta’s reign at that time. I hope he has Brighton’s undeserved victory against us two season’s ago when lockdown started (remember Maupay taking out Leno and then scoring in the last seconds?), as well as the bore draw at home to Palace and the 3-0 humbling by Villa squarely in his minds eye. I hope he has a spring in his step because of the result, but focus and determination in his heart for these three games, because i’d love us to pick up three wins against opponents who have caused us plenty of problems in recent games against them.

It’s time we went on a run and the Tottenham result must be a springboard, not just a footnote at the end of the season because of our inconsistencies.

I have the belief it can be with this collective of players. I touched on it in my review of the game yesterday, but it really does  feel like there is something brewing right now. As a fan I haven’t felt as connected to a team as this one for a long time. Winning of course helps that, but there feels like there is a unity slowly growing between those players and we seem to have augmented some of the talent we already had (Smith Rowe, Saka, Aubameyang, Tierney) with additional talent plus characters too. Tomiyasu looks like the kind of quiet, unassuming,  footballer who let’s his football do the talking. He’s strong and resolute without being chest-thumpingly loud. He plays on my side of the pitch when we shoot towards the Clock End and already i’ve noticed that. People have said he could be Monreal-like for us and I feel like that is a good comparison. Monreal was an excellent, consistent, hard working left back who wasn’t the loudest, but was  reliable and great for us. Tomiyasu feels like he can be that sort of player and hopefully he stays fit and we see more of what we’ve seen in these first three games. If he continues that form then he’ll be quite some player.

Ben White is on his side of the defence too and he’s not come across as a particularly loud and shouty defender, but he does his job well and has shown that he is an upgrade on what we had. Ramsdale feels more like a chest-thumper and you can see straight away what he has delivered in terms of his personality with the players, but also in helping to bring the fans closer to the team too. Almost straight away in that West Brom game you could see it. I was there behind that goal in the first half and you could see that he had connected with us. I looked at his signing at the beginning of the season and I saw a young ‘keeper who’s stats looked  average at best, who we had been tricked in to believing that he was worth north of £20million by a Sheffield United team looking to maximise their outlay. What I am already realising is just what this guy can bring and it is also perhaps testimony to the Arsenal back office team and scouts who identified some of the ‘soft factors’ aside from stats on the pitch, as to what he could bring.

This team feels likeable. They are young, they have hunger, they have energy. They will make mistakes, we all know that, but as fans it feels like we’ll all collectively give them a break when we can see that they are leaving it all out on the pitch. For too many recent years it just hasn’t felt like it. Now it feels like this investment in Project Youth 2.0 could actually pay off. Of course I don’t want to get ahead of myself and of course it may all come crashing down on Saturday evening at the Amex, but right now it feels like we have something developing and I want to keep that good feeling in my mind throughout this working week.

Catch you all tomorrow.

It always goes a little quiet after a win like this and the introspection and teeth gnashing stops a little, or at least slows down, so it’s nice having a little look around the internet to see what’s going on without waiting to see the latest broken cannons piece. Of course I don’t bother with the sensationalist red tops and so won’t bother looking at any of those. But there are plenty of decent journo’s out there and if you get time have a listen to Chris Wheatley on his YouTube channel. He seems to have had his finger on the pulse of what’s going on at Arsenal this summer and came in with plenty of accurate news stories before they broke. He has been speaking on a Q&A about a few things yesterday and I thought i’d touch on them today.

Firstly, that young lad in the u23s Charlie Patino. He scored a pretty sexy goal against Man United and whilst we all know that the jump from that type of football to full adult football is fairly extensive, the fact he’s so young and bossing it against young men a lot older than him is a good sign. As somebody else pointed out on Twitter yesterday too, the two players that Patino shimmied past and flicked the ball over to score were Phil Jones and Dean Henderson. Both are experienced first team defenders and whilst Jones may have been returning from injury and therefore using as an opportunity to get his fitness back, he will still have been no slouch.

I read a lot of Dave’s pieces and know that he’s spoken to Charlie and has been raving about him some time. He’s now also training with the first team I believe and you almost have to curse the fact that we only have a few League Cup games this season. If we’d have had those early stage Europa League games then I wonder if Patino would have been able to be fast tracked in to the first team for some matches, but with the ‘squad’ games being less frequent this year, I suspect it might be tougher.

It does make you think about the generations of players who have been able to get minutes in that competition in recent years and how much it could make it difficult to assess the jump for some of the young u23 players coming through right now. With Arsenal and Arteta wanting to potentially use the League Cup to give minutes to older players on the fringes of the first team to keep them fresh in case they are needed through injury or suspension, it makes you wonder just how many players are going to get to see if they can step up.

Perhaps we’ll see more loans in January than we usually would? There will be plenty of clubs interested in taking Arsenal players lower down the leagues because they’ll know the quality of the academy that we have so you wonder just how long it’ll be before some of those players are granted opportunities. Certainly with Patino, if he keeps catching the eye with displays like he did against United you’d have to say that you expect him to at least secure a move to see if he can make the full step up to first team football. I have only seem glimpses of him in the youth team but they have all been impressive and when you start to see some of his running power with the ball and his all action style, dare I invoke the name of a certain Jack Wilshere bursting on to the scene? Jack had a loan to Bolton that helped to form him so perhaps that is the next logical step for Patino.

Balogun and Nketiah also played in that match and that will be about keeping their form ticking over. Balogun will be looking at where his minutes will be and I suspect he might have thought he’d get more game time already than he has, particularly in that West Brom game, but we need to find minutes for him somewhere I think. If not then there should already be work behind the scenes to get a loan sorted from 1st January. If we get beyond Wimbledon the chances are that the games are going to start becoming tougher against Premier League opponents and so if we aren’t going to give him minutes in the competition now, when are we? It’s only one of three competitions we can realistically win this season and so personally I’d be in favour of giving him the AFC Wimbledon start, seeing who we get in the next round, then having him as a sub super bench option in the league, along with Lacazette.

Which brings me to Nketiah, who I think we need to just accept we’re losing next summer and there will probably be a raft of clubs who will want him on a free transfer. It’s been an utterly shocking way to maximise the return on player – and youth player as well – investment and only the club will know why this cocked up. But only the club will also know what their options are right now. Nobody is going to buy him in January when they can get him for free in the summer, so for me I suspect we will lose for nothing, or a nominal tribunal fee (are we even eligible?), so I think Balogun has to move up on the pecking order. We all know it is Auba and Laca as the number one and two strikers this season. Nketiah should in no circumstances be number three if he’s edging towards the door. The only way you’d say Arteta and co should countenance that, is if he signs a new one year extension, so we know that we will at least get something for him in the summer next season. But there’s been no noises of that whatsoever so if it was me I’d be telling him that his game time will be practically non-existent. It’s time to accept  this was a massive cock up not letting him go on loan last January and take our medicine on that one.

Right, I think i’ll leave it at that today, things to do and work to be done and all that Jazz, you see.

You have a good one and I’ll catch you tomorrow.

As I think I said yesterday (I never re-read my own nonsense so why start now!?) the transfer on it’s own isn’t  the most inspiring and neither is what feels like an inflated price, but I’d be surprised if we sign just Neves and nobody else so there’s no point losing our collective sh*t until we get closer towards the start of the season. By the beginning of August hopefully we’ve made a few more moves that give us a clearer indication of the squad for the new season and then we can start to judge how we think the season will shape up.

Something I did spot on my Twitter timeline though that I do think is worth pointing out, is that we have a few very exciting young prospects already at the club that we should be very much looking forward to seeing next season. Bukayo Saka should hopefully be A LOT better than he has already shown us this season and if he shows an evolution on what we saw last season then we will already be in for a better one than the tripe of a season we just had to endure. The same could be said for Martinelli if he can stay fit, as well as Emile Smith-Rowe. All of these players are at the age in which you expect to start seeing upside on their growth curve and that incline – if they truly are to reach their potentials – starts to increase quite dramatically.

It was Elliott on the Arsenal Vision podcast who referenced Raheem Sterling’s goal and assist contributions exploding in his season in which he hit 20 years old I think. I know Emile Smith-Rowe has already past that marker but in the context of playing time he’s probably the equivalent of a player a year younger or two than him. So if we can see the continued improvement from him that we saw from December onwards,  then we’ll have quite a playmaker who can feed the likes of Aubameyang.

These types of young and hungry players will be starters from the beginning of the season too now. Let’s not forget that Mikel Arteta seemed to stumble on this deployment of some of these players from effectively the turn of this year. He now knows they can handle it and he now knows he can count on them from the start of the season. It means we already have an advantage on last season and hopefully Mikel has learned the error of his ways by starting next season with some of that young and hungry blood. I’m not going to go all revisionist on last season and try to legislates for the mistakes that Mikel made, but the second half of the season replicated over nine months should probably see us compete for the top four at least.

The challenge will be to ensure that we can replace the players that depart. Ceballos and Luiz I think are do-able and although there are noises about Saliba to Newcastle I just hope that is journo speculation that goes nowhere. Saliba could be a gem and I’ve said that a few times, but I hope that Arteta see’s it and he shows it in pre season. We could all do with that resolving itself to a positive conclusion for all parties and him playing more regularly next season. As for Ceballos, well, that feels like a pretty low bar for us and if that is Ruben Neves then I’m ok with that. £40million seems a lot though I will admit.

The challenge comes is if Neves is a Xhaka replacements, because we still need to go and find another player and if that is a cheap and low-quality alternative (look what we did when we needed a back up ‘keeper…that’s why I’d be worried about a low cost alternative, rather than unearthing a gem) to Ceballos, then it gets a little more difficult to swallow. But as I’ve already said above there’s no point crying over milk that hasn’t even been spilt yet. Better just wait until Edu knocks it over first…

I’m also optimistic over Partey too. He’s just been given permission to miss a couple of games for Ghana which effectively means his summer is freed up for rest and to be ready for the new season. Hopefully there isn’t anything bad behind his omission from these Ghana friendlies and provided that is the case we’ll get a rested and ready Partey for the beginning of the 2021/22  season. Which is exactly what we need.

So there you have it. A case for the defence of optimism over SOME of the players we already have the club, with whom I think we will see a greater up side than we saw this past season.

Look at me. I’m getting positive already. Must be all the sun that is enveloping Britain at the moment.

Catch you all tomorrow.

After the game on Sunday evening Arteta gave a brief update and we’re expecting some kind of news ahead of the trip to Prague on Thursday, but the manager hardly sounded over-the-top optimistic, did he?

Just our luck. We could go into the Slavia Prague game missing Tierney, Luiz, Saka, Smith-Rowe and Odegaard. If you were picking a starting XI of the best team available to us in this current squad, I think right now all of those players would make the first XI. So that’s more than half of our first choice XI who are out. That doesn’t take in to account the fact that Aubameyang could also be missing – or at least not 100% after illness – and this is all conspiring to make Thursday night an incredibly nervous one. Like it wasn’t going to be already.

I really hope Arteta has lock himself away at London Colney and is trying to find a possible alternative solution to the conundrum that will be Thursday’s game. Slavia will be better than they were against us at The Emirates, of that I am in no doubt, but surely we too should be better than our showing? The lack of pace, intensity, urgency, if ever there was a time to discard those negative attributes it would be this game. There can be no excuses for lacklustre performances and for me that means Arteta needs to find something different.

Then I start to think about what is different that he could do with players available? Let’s make the assumption that ALL of the above players aren’t fit enough to play. What then?

Arrange your attacking front line with bags of pace. It’s the only thing I can think of. And for me that means Willian doesn’t even get on the plane to Prague. It means Pepe and Martinelli flank Lacazette (I’m making the assumption Auba doesn’t play, otherwise he goes in like a shot) and you look to drive forward with rapid movement. I do wonder as well if Arteta does some dice rolling with some of the youth players. Perhaps you opt for Azeez and Balogun to be on the bench? Although I suspect that won’t be the case because they played yesterday in a 3-2 win over the under-23s. Balogun scored and he’s due to be announced for another deal at some stage this week, so perhaps a good way of recognising his potential in the player by naming him in the extended squad that is allowed in the Europa. I’d have Azeez too, because it will provide energy, a freshness about the team and might surprise a few Slavia players and coaching staff too if we have a couple of ‘left of field’ options.

The fact you can make five subs needs to be key on Thursday too. Arsenal have a vastly superior squad on paper and in terms of the investment made in the playing staff and whilst that might not mean that we get past Slavia in this next round, what it should mean is that our options from the bench should be able to provide us with more opportunities to change the narrative of the football match. We saw how making multiple subs made an impact in the first leg and it has been one of those facets of Arteta’s coaching style that has come under scrutiny. That especially has to be the case when you can make so many subs. It afford you a bit of a buffer and I don’t think there are many of us who feel that Arteta has used that to great effect.

It’s frustrating because it feels to me like he’s been far too risk-averse in his decision making and that feels like it has cost us. Making subs with just 12 minutes to go didn’t give us enough time to press home our advantage and I think most of us Gooners felt that Arteta’s indecisiveness might have cost us if we get knocked out in just a couple of days time. Think about it logically; if you come on as a sub, it might take you two or three minutes to get in to the pace of it, or even before you receive the ball. In the Premier League our player with the most touches in attack is Saka with 1,365 touches in 27 appearances. That’s an average of 50 a game, which is about one touch every 30 seconds or so. Many of those touches are not in goalscoring positions. So if you give somebody 12 minutes to make an impact you’re saying that at best they will have six instances of getting the ball on average. Is that enough time to make an impact?

Not to me it isn’t. Yet on Thursday last week Auba had a shot just wide and the assist to put Pepe in on goal for his finish. Now imagine that he’s come on at 60 minutes. You’re looking at potentially getting 15 touches in that time and we know that Auba is a low touch player so his involvement will be at the sharp end of the pitch. I’m not really a stats guy, just wanted to do some basic crunching to think about what indecisiveness does to the chances of winning a football match and whilst I am still on the Arteta bus, this is something he needs to get better at. Especially in Europe with five subs. You can make three subs on 60 minutes and you’ve STILL got two in reserve for injuries or last minute tactical changes. You can replace an injured player in the first half and STILL make three subs on 60 minutes, knowing you have one more you can do. So what I’m hoping for on Thursday – assuming it isn’t quite going to plan (which I think we’re all acutely aware of possibly/probably happening with this Arsenal team) – is that decisions are made swiftly and fastly. I hope MIkel is prepared to roll the dice a little quicker.

Even if that is for some young blood. It was because of his rolling of the dice with Smith Rowe and some of the younger players over Christmas that we found a winning formula for a period of time. Now we just need to perhaps move that to the next stage with the likes of Balogun or Azeez. I know it is a high pressure environment, but we need to know if these kids can cut it and so I say give them a chance if it isn’t working on Thursday.

Let’s see what Mikel says in his press conference ahead of the game. Maybe we’ll get a hint of it.

Catch you all tomorrow

Well, having seen Arsenal look a little laboured yesterday, but ultimately pick up three points away to Brighton yesterday in the Premier League, I feel like that phrase aptly describes our overall performance yesterday evening on the south coast. That’s because Arsenal’s performance was hardly the swashbuckling delight we got from a comprehensive victory over Chelski. It was also hardly the kind of performance that will make you think all of our woes are resolved. But I tell you this much right now; winning football matches – however they happen – is fun. It means you can listen to podcasts when you are out running with a smile and not a grimace, it means Match of The Day becomes a pre-bed ritual you can engage in again, as well as makes writing and talking about The Arsenal the next day becomes a more enjoyable pursuit.

So in this instance those ‘ends’ were worthy of the ‘means’ for us to be talking about the final two games of 2020 being victories.

We have 20 points folks. Just another 20 needed to secure our top flight status!

Of course I am being glib, but the form we had been exhibiting before these last two games had everyone genuinely concerned about which direction this team was going and how far we might plummet. By stringing together two results like we have we have seen a ray of light and with West Brom, Crystal Palace and Newcastle in the league to come, we have three matches in which if we can start to pick up more wins, we’ll be spending less time looking down and hopefully more time looking up.

As for yesterday’s game, we saw an almost identical line up selected to that of the Chelski performance, but with Aubameyang in place of Lacazette, to lead the line. What we had seen from the start against Chelski was an intensity about the team. We pressed high, our full backs ran in beyond the Chelski full backs and that created gaps that we exploited. But there was to be no repeat of that in last night’s game and, in a way, if any of us did think that then we were always going to be disappointed. Brighton set up to retain possession, but they rarely over committed and at times in the first half they were sitting their full backs in a line of five. That meant Bellerin and Tierney couldn’t find the pockets of space to run in behind and in truth the first half was a painful watch. Aubameyang was disconnected from the rest of the attacking quartet and whilst we saw a few flashes of potentially openings (a ball for Martinelli to chase was just a bit overcooked from Saka and the ‘keeper collected, then a pass from Xhaka to Martinelli in the air with the Brazillian trying to head square to an unmarked Aubamayeng, for example), we never troubled Brighton in the first half.

In contrast, Brighton showed just why they are in a whole heap of trouble, because they never massively troubled Leno, despite getting in to good positions on a couple of occasions and could have punished us. One example I’m thinking was an idiotic pass from Mo Elneny, who I will be quite glad to see drop down the pecking order sooner rather than later if I’m honest with you. LIkeable personality, terrible footballer, let’s have Partey returning to the team as soon as possible please.

The second half was a much more palatable affair from Arsenal though. We looked to be better at connecting our attacking quartet and within the first five minutes Smith-Rowe and Saka had combined to see our wonderkid slide a very impressive ball across to Aubameyang. Auba did everything right but it was a fantastic reflex save from the Brighton ‘keeper, but that at least gave us hope: we were creating chances.

Martinelli blasted just over, Auba hit the side netting, then Saka had a good dribble which he should probably have cut back to Aubameyang to tap home instead of going for goal. But if that showed perhaps a little bit of the impetuousness of youth by going for glory, on 66 minutes he showed just what a mature footballer he is at 19, because his strong run on the right hand side sent Brighton’s back line chasing back towards their own goal and as a result, when Saka checked back near the by line, the Brighton defenders were about five to six yards closer to their goal line, whereas Lacazette – on for a matter of seconds – had arrived later and found himself with enough time to take a touch in the box and find a very acute angle to drill the ball home. A goal from open play, a goal which puts us ahead instead of chasing, a goal for us to cling on to.

It was fine finish from a maligned player and that’s three in three for Lacazette now. As we all know he is an incredibly streaky player and his barren runs can literally last half a season if he’s not on it. But when he is then he tends to get his goals in bunches and we just have to hope that he’s in a patch of good form that will see him pick up more and more goals in the coming weeks. We will need it.

We will also need to remain strong and steadfast at the back and whilst Brighton posed us little threat in the end, I thought defensively we looked better too. Pablo Mari has a calming air about him and whilst I still remain to be convinced at all by Holding, he didn’t really do a lot wrong yesterday, so I won’t complain too much about his inclusion. Neither will I about Granit Xhaka either. He was good against Chelski and he followed that up yesterday; we saw the progressive passing Xhaka who was looking to hit longer diagonals and whilst not all of them came off, it was better to see than the backwards stat-padding merchant Elneny square the ball or play it backwards every odd minute or so.

The performance wasn’t vintage, it certainly wasn’t pretty in the first half, but we saw glimpses in the second which give me cause for optimism. Confidence in football is massive and we’ve seen just how much it affected our players when we were on that losing streak. But with back-to-back victories now under their belts I hope those players start to believe they can play with a little more freedom and take a few more risks than they have been doing. If they do that, then they will be rewarded more over the coming weeks and months.

Catch you all tomorrow.

There’s also part of me that just wants to experience something different tomorrow night and certainly the Europa League has provided that. Three wins from three, goals and an opportunity to qualify for the knockout stages with two games to spare awaits The Arsenal tomorrow evening and that is welcome respite from the drab, dreary, dull and frankly boring performances in the Premier League, that has seen us go game after game without scoring.

So seeing the likes of Balogun, Azeez and Smith-Rowe get on that flying metal tube with wings was heartening, that’s for sure. Whether or not many of them will start I’m not entirely convinced, but at least we have the hope that we might see something different tomorrow and that’s what we’re all hoping for. A change of fortunes, a different approach, a tactical switch, a young player who has an impressive game, anything. We are looking for anything that we can hang our hopes on and hopefully we get something today from Arteta that gives us some hope, as well as tomorrow in terms of performance.

He’ll do his press conference today and I really hope he hints at loosening the attacking reins a little at some stage. What we’ve seen this season has been an impressive defence, but it feels like it has almost entirely been at the expense of any kind of attacking impetus and whilst we can debate for every whether that is down to manager or personnel, there is no doubt that we now have enough data (games) with which to see we have a very big problem. The game at the weekend against Wolves is one I dread, but then again I’m dreading every Premier League game right now, so that’s no surprise. So the Europa League feels like a weirdly nice distraction. In my mind I’m just looking at that as the ‘next game’ and I’m not over thinking or worrying about Wolves because there is another match that is closer to us on the horizon.

There’s also the slightly irrational hope that in the likes of Smith-Rowe or Balogun we find some sort of solution that can be fast-tracked to the first team. What we’ve seen from the creative and attacking players so far this season is a collective of well played players who are all uniformly performing terribly. The impact of that has been this atrocious run of games without scoring. It’s never been an issue for us over the years and now we find ourselves in a position in which it feels – rather irrationally – like we may never score again.

What I will offer up now though, is this slight glimmer of hope; we all thought that we had a rag-tag bunch of uncoachable defenders. A year ago we all said our defence is a farce and there needed to be mass player movement in that area. Yet here we are in November 2020 with one of the best defences in the league. Alright, we also have one of the worst attacks, but defensively Arteta has turned that around so the thought of him being able to unlock our attack – given how we felt about the back line we had, doesn’t feel like it needs as much of a momentous leap.

It just feels a little dark right now. We all know that. We all want to see a change in fortunes. We all want to experience that feeling of goals and wins. We will get there eventually, but we just have to ride out that rough patch, I reckon. It’s crap now but it won’t be forever.

Maybe tomorrow can be a change? Maybe we can see a Pepe with a fire lit from underneath him? Maybe Smith-Rowe steps up and gives us hope for that creative connector role between midfield and attack? Maybe our front line clicks? Who knows. All I do know is that I’m done with being despondent…for now….I’m hoping for good things tomorrow and hopefully Arteta and his charges can deliver.

Catch you wonderful people tomorrow.

I think what it also shows is how long we’ve waited for a Premier League title and whilst I can’t see it in the immediate future, I have to keep reminding myself just how difficult it is and so when your team does win it, you need to drink in every last drop. I was born in 82 and didn’t get into football until I was seven. That means when I was getting in to The Arsenal we had 89, 91, an FA and League Cup double in 93, the Cup Winners Cup in 1994, then another league title in 98. We then won the league in 2002, FA Cup in 2003, the Invincibles season in 2004 and thereafter it was 2005 for the FA Cup, before 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2020.

I’ve seen Arsenal win trophies for 13 of the 30-odd seasons that i’ve been supporting the club. The reason I’m pointing this out is to show just how much of a force we’ve been during my lifetime, although whilst Partey talks about us getting back to where we want to be he’s looking at that period around the early 2000s and wanting to make his mark as a player that in 20 year’s time, we hear new Arsenal signings talking about in the same reverence.

It feels like we do need to build that next historical team. People older than me talk about the 71 side, or the side of the early 90s, but there’s not many that will wax lyrical about the late 2000s or 2010s sides, because they didn’t win the big prizes.

I think in Mikel Arteta we have a guy who can certainly give us a good shot and the fact that he already has an FA Cup to his name is already a ‘doesn’t win trophies’ black mark that was erased from his copybook before his career had even started. Players see that, they hear what other players are saying and I think as much as Partey always wanted to join Arsenal (we were linked before Arteta was on the scene), I think there is genuine excitement from him about what this group of players can achieve. As I said yesterday my judgement on fighting for the title is very much reserved until December, probably even until next season, but for now I’m just enjoying the feelgood factor back at the club. And that’s in the wake of this COVID crisis as well as some of the saga’s we have with certain players who shall remain nameless.

There’s also good news from the younger ranks too. Eddie Nketiah broke the under-21s record for goals last night and whilst he won’t have much longer in the side at 21 years of age until May next year, there will be other opportunities for him to add to that tally and it’s great to see for a young man whose confidence will be high right now. I’ll admit that I’m still not sure whether he’ll make it as Arsenal’s number one striker, but what I think I do have to appreciate is that he is only 21. He turned that only a few months ago and he’s been in and around the first team, bagging himself a few goals too, for about a year. He’s been given opportunities already this season and already has two goals, including one in the Premier League to snatch all three points against West Ham. There will come a time where I will have to recognise that he is going to be a good player. I don’t like to make comparisons with that scummy lot up the road, but Kane had his breakthrough season at 21 years old. That season he bagged 31 goals in all competitions, although he started off as a sub and then his scoring led him to being promoted to first choice. Eddie is on the cusp of it with his battle with Lacazette and if he keeps bagging goals then there is no reason why he couldn’t become first choice by the end of it. But it does feel to me like it needs to happen now. There are no talks on Lacazette and a new deal, he’s at the age where we need to make a decision and next season the Frenchman will have a year left and be 29. If Eddie could displace him as the main man that would be amazing for us as it would mean that we have that fabled ‘internal solution’ up top, but I think in order to do that he’s going to have to emulate Kane to some extent.

The route for the dribbly one at Tottenham is surprisingly similar. He came on as a sub for the first game of the season against West Ham (sound familiar?). He then had impressive displays in the Europa League and bagged plenty of goals in that competition, as well as scoring against Nottingham Forest in the League Cup. All sounding familiar, eh? He only started playing properly in the November of that year and the dirty scummers were already about 12 Premier League games into the season by then. But that’s all I want to reference about him and that disgusting excuse for a football club. Let’s get back to Eddie, who has already made his sub appearance against West Ham and scored, scored in the League Cup against Leicester City and will no doubt play a big part in the upcoming Europa League games. His trajectory is good and when I think about it the reason I am a little sceptical as to whether he’s going to make it is because he’s been around the first team for so long.

But if he’s going to be a future star at the Arsenal team it does feel like he needs to kick on this season. I don’t mean he has to bag 31 goals in all competitions like Kane did, but if he contributes 15 in all competitions then we’ve probably got ourselves a guy who might just make it. If you count his goals at Leeds last season then he got nine in all comps. If he ups that to more than 15 in Arsenal colours, then maybe we can start to get excited. It’s all there for him, he just needs to take his advantage and if he does, well then the chances are we’ve also had a very good season and that can only be a good thing.

I don’t really want to look ahead too much at the Watford game because, frankly, it is of little consequence to me. So last night and this morning my mind started to wander off along in the direction of thinking about the clear and obvious lack of creativity that just about every Arsenal fan has been talking about this season. No more was that evident than against Aston Villa and as many of us have seen all season, when you don’t have a Mesut Ozil type creative player to connect midfield and attack, then you’re going to suffer.

Well, I say a ‘Mesut Ozil type player’, but we can all see that Mesut Ozil hasn’t been that player for some time, so it is abundantly clear that we need a new connector to step into his place. Willock doesn’t have the passing range to be that guy and whilst he gets into good positions in the box, he hasn’t had enough about him from a goalscoring perspective to solve a problem we have. Maitland-Niles is your classix ‘on paper’ guy. To me he should have it; he is strong, athletic, has pace, the right physicality, it feels like he has the energy that could cover ground, but have we really seen enough of his passing range to be that guy? Have we really seen enough of him carrying the ball in central areas?

The challenge with seeing him out wide is that you get much more space out wide and so carrying the ball is a little easier than it is through the middle. It’s statistics, right? I mean I don’t have the numbers but we all know that statistically the middle of the park is where teams view risk, which is why football has always been a sport where teams playing narrow and flooding the centre spine of the pitch reduces their risk. So many teams are happy to concede possession out wide and so when you have a ball carrier out wide who is good, it doesn’t mean they’ll thrive in the centre.

That’s also why I’m not sure if Saka is ‘the guy’ through the middle either. We can all see his talent; he can beat a man, he’s good with his crossing, he’s a goalscorer, so for me out wide is where we need him to be. But that still doesn’t solve our creative midfield issue and as we’ve also seen this season, Dani Ceballos doesn’t quite fit that mould, despite the fact he’s been impressive of late.

That’s why last night I started looking at Emile Smith Rowe and how he’s got on at Huddersfield. It turns out….quite well. I saw his message he put on Twitter about how much he’s enjoyed his loan spell and is happy to have helped play his part in them staying up. A good end to the season for him, I thought, but then I started to look at some of the responses because quite often the responses of people on Twitter will give you an indication on how he’s got on. And it’s clear to me that the Huddersfield fans loved him. I struggled to find anything remotely negative about him and amongst the praise were comments about fans just being glad that they could see him in the flesh and how great a future he’s got, about how he has been such an important part of their team and how he’s been integral in them staying up. Quite literally, in fact, as he got the winner in a 2-1 win over promoted West Brom at home last week.

I started doing a little more reading up on how he’s done and at the beginning of July there was another match report about how he bossed the game against Birmingham City. Huddersfield boss Danny Cowley has had high praise for him indeed and I’ve read a few articles where he talks about booing himself when Smith-Rowe is brought off as a sub, as well as the impact he’s had in between the lines and when Emile is fed the ball between the midfield and attack.

By all accounts this is sounding rather promising, eh? And I’m reminded of the loan spell Jack Wilshere had. They loved him at Bolton and he kicked on a gear, whereby the Bolton fans waxed lyrical before he came back to us and established himself as a first team regular the season after, which was also the season he had his seminal game against Barcelona in which he bossed the midfield with Cesc. If this loan has had the same impact on Smith Rowe then Arteta must surely be looking at him with a view that his Arsenal future in the first team is fast approaching.

But let’s not forget that he’s only just turned 20. As Saka’s performance against Villa showed, if he comes back to Arsenal next season and is in the squad fighting for a first team place, then he will have bouts of indifferent form. That’s understandable at such a young age and it’s important we don’t crucify him. But I also think it is important on Arsenal to do the right thing and not put too much pressure on him. If Ozil truly has no place next season – which looks the case at the moment – then we need more creativity being packed into our midfield options. Smith-Rowe will provide one option, but for 60 – 70% of the games next season we may need an established name to come in. If that happens and we can ease Smith-Rowe into a more regular starting slot, then in two to three year’s time we could have a superstar on our hands.

Catch you tomorrow.

Arsenal ‘getting the job done’. Huh. Feels weird.

We haven’t seen that for quite some time. Certainly not this season, but when you think about Arsenal teams of the past ‘getting the job done’ you think back to George Graham’s Arsenal. They were built on a foundation of a strong defence and organised structure from the back and yesterday, first ten minutes or so aside, that’s what we got too.

Whisper it quietly, but David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi actually look like they know what they’re doing back there. Of course that could all come crumbling down at home to Everton on Sunday, but we looked organised and in control for large parts of the game yesterday. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we were spectacular and I’ll wager that by this time tomorrow I’ll barely be able to remember the vast bulk of the game, but as Mikel said afterwards to the press, you are allowed to enjoy defending too.

We haven’t appreciated that for so long. It has probably been the best part of 15 year’s since we’ve had a back line that we could enjoy watching in terms of the art of defending. So to get a decent performance from our back line yesterday was another tick in Arteta’s box; that’s also back-to-back clean sheets and discipline that we’re showing in our own half is pleasing.

It was a fairly even game overall in terms of the stats, with Olympiakos shading possession 51 to 49, Arsenal having 12 shots to their 10, but the difference between the two sides was that little bit of end product. And when I start thinking back to the game it’s only in those opening couple of minutes that I can remember Olympiakos fashioning a decent chance (I’m not counting the header from a set piece in the second half as that was ruled offside anyway). In contrast Arsenal hit the bar, created three big chances and scored through Lacvazette, who found himself inside the six yard box to tap home. A proper strikers finish and this is all helping to contribute towards his slow rebuilding of confidence that we desperately need to see over the coming weeks.

Lacazette’s name goes on the scoresheet, but let’s give a shout out to Saka too, who got his ninth assist of the season, with a clever ball across goal following some good work on the left by Aubameyang. It’s a side of the pitch in which end product is coming in spades at the moment, which is why some of Mikel’s initial selection decisions were a little weird if you ask me. He named Leno in goal which is less weird – although Martinez will probably be a bit cheesed off that he’s lost his place in this competition now too, it seems – but I certainly didn’t expect to see Sokratis as a right back and with a better team up against us we might have been punished last night. I think that was a gamble by Arteta because certainly for the first half there were a few instances where the Greek centre half found himself overloaded against the left wing of Olympiakos. Quite why Maitland-Niles wasn’t given a chance I don’t know, but I think we have to look at his future at the club as quite bleak right now; Arteta would rather play a centre half with less pace and not in his natural position, than he would the guy who has given us at least 20 games as a right back. I wonder if that Maitland-NIles interview about him not wanting to be a right back has come back to bite him on the arse?

Anyway, that was one weird decision, but so too, I thought, was the decision to play Aubameyang on the right hand side of our three-pronged attack. He was completely nullified for his time on the right and whilst I do think he should be playing centrally, I can at least understand him playing wide left as it gives him licence to drift in field more. Yesterday evening he was forced constantly out wide when he got the ball and as a result was pretty redundant. Yet as soon as he was shifted to the left with Pepe on the right, we saw how he can have an impact, building up for the goal.

Arteta has made a couple of strange decisions with selection and subs since he’s joined, but I’ll certainly not lambast him for it, because he’s a young coach and just like young players when they make the odd error in a game you have to appreciate that Arteta is still learning about his players.

And speaking of young players, what a talent we have in Saka. Get him signed up to a 10 year deal Arsenal; this kid has got it in spades and we need to make sure we’re protecting that asset. He’s 18 years old and he has a few goals and nine assists. We’re witnessing the next generation of forward players coming through and if he continues to perform like this between now and the end of the season, then when we do have to offload Aubameyang in the summer, you have to look at that position on the left and think we may not need to buy after all. Saka and Martinelli are stars in the making and we need to free up space to give them game time I reckon.

Martinelli was less impressive yesterday but these games happen. As was Willock too. I thought he had a pretty poor game to be honest but again, he’s young, so let’s not haul him over any hot coals any time soon.

It’s an important win away from home, it helps to build the confidence, it means we have back-to-back clean sheets and now we look ahead to Everton at home in the hope that we can grab another win and start to think about going on some form of run.

Catch you lovely humans tomorrow.

I’ve seen a few people who are slightly surprised by this because Burton has been viewed as a talent that could potentially make the step up from the under-23s but, as we all know, the first team and establishing yourself there is very very different from having a promising time in the youth set up.

There’s no doubt he’s a decent player and he’s made some cameos in pre season last year and also on the bench in a couple of cup games, but he hasn’t really got close to breaking through and with so many young players already getting their chance, it was hard to believe he’d get his.

And that’s the way of the world unfortunately. Arsenal, like many other clubs, play the numbers game, which means you invest in an academy and hope that you can unearth yourself a few gems like Saka.

In fact Arsenal have done pretty well with unearthing players. Some people may question Alex Iwobi, or Ainsley Maitland-Niles and their ability to lock down a first team place at the club, but they’ve still broken through and in Iwobi’s case we’ve got a tidy sum as a result. So whilst some have raised some eyebrows over the potential exit of Burton, personally I just see it as part of the process, so there it is.

Of course there is some mitigation to add in to any of these situations, such as contract clauses that ensure Arsenal can undo any potential red faces, such as a ‘buyback clause’ that could be inserted into any promising players deal. I might be wrong but I thought we had something similar with Carlos Vela? He never returned to the club but we were able to buy the contract and sell straight on for some extra cash in the coffers. So a move to protect being made to look silly make sense.

So too, it would seem, it would be prudent to have the buyback in there in case he does actually hit it off in Croatia and we see a potential to bring him back in a few years for a reduced fee compared to his market value. Stranger things have happened and when you look at De Bruyne and Salah and then returning to England to make Chelski look silly, a buyback seems like a bit of a no brainer to me. We might even have that situation with Donyell Malen, who left our academy to join PSV and now we find ourselves looking at a guy with 14 goals in 17 games this season, as well as a debut for Holland last September. Perhaps there are a few lamenting the fact we couldn’t hold on to him, but in reality he was never near the first team at Arsenal and so who knew he would light up the Eredivisie?

Not many average Arsenal fans like thee and me, I’d wager.

But for every Malen, Sancho, etc, there’s a Marcus McGuane, for example. He’s currently at Telstar having not really ripped up any trees at Barcelona B and in January the papers were speculating about whether or not he’d seal a permanent move away. If you looked at the numbers I bet it isn’t even one in 20 that graduate from Hale End who go elsewhere and then have a career where we regret that we lost them.

So if you’re starting to get a little nervous when you see situations like that of Robbie Burton, just remember that a) Arsenal could mitigate the risk somewhat by inserting clauses, and b) the odds are that he isn’t turning into the next Sancho. But if he is then fair play to him. We’re seeing more and more young British players make their way overseas to ply their trade and with clubs showing more interest, perhaps it’s time that we tied these players down to deals that ensured we can get coin for them, rather than lose them for nothing?

There is usually a few that goes to a team if they lose an academy graduate to another club, but you never hear about it when it’s one of the bigger clubs, do you? So I wonder if this rule is still in place for these types of situations?

Of course I don’t profess to have any kind of intel or knowledge of the youth team. I’m just you’re average Arsenal obsessive of those that make the starting XI each week. But with every Arsenal fan conditioned to be an amateur accountant these days, learning about coffers being boosted by the sales of young players suddenly becomes a ‘thing’, unfortunately.

Anyway, that’s probably about all I got to say about that for the day. I’ll not comment on the very obvious sending off that was missed by VAR last night, because frankly, I’m bored about talking about the incompetence of how it is being applied by the PGMOL. So I’ll move swiftly on and bid you all a lovely day. Enjoy yours and I’ll catch thee in the morrow.

Laters.

Yesterday’s press conference from Unai Emery was pretty pathetic I have to say. I don’t know whether it’s because after that Sheffield United game I ‘turned’ on him and so now every situation that he presided over I automatically have negative thoughts relating to it, but I saw the comments and listened to the presser ahead of tonight’s game and all I could think of is that it’s just another mismanaged situation, from a man who is looking increasingly out of his depth as every day passes.

On the Xhaka stuff, I’m actually not that fussed if he doesn’t apologise, mainly because an apology does little for anyone. Those that have an issue with him won’t suddenly come out all-guns blazing in support, those that support him will wonder why he has had to apologise for getting all that abuse. Me, I just want him to get back to football and start delivering better performances in a better system, probably with a better manager.

What Emery should have done yesterday afternoon is he very clear in which direction we are going. Step one is to say one of:

• “He’s my captain. I back him. He will remain my captain. No more questions.”
• “What he did was wrong. I have spoken to him. He will no longer be one of my 869 captains”.

Not only that, but we’ve got a flip-flopping on Mesut Özil too, who suddenly is ready to be in the team and will probably play tonight. Your guess is as good as mine as to why he’s 180’d after telling us it was a decision with him and the executives to leave him out of the team entirely. Let’s not forget he was not even on the bench in the last two games.

But he’ll play today away at Anfield and so will a host of other rotated players I suspect. Remember when last season we had players playing across both competitions, with people praising Emery because unlike Wenger’s last season, there wasn’t a clear “A Team” and “B Team”. Well I suspect we’ll get some of that tonight which is bizarre, because some of those players who should be in the “A Team” are probably going to play tonight in the “B Team”.

Martinez in goal is to be expected. A back four of Bellerin, Holding, Mustafi and Kolasinac – given Tierney played on Sunday – is what I think he’ll go with. Then we’ve got a midfield that you’d think would have Willock and Torreira in it. Unless of course Xhaka is being taken out of the firing line at the weekend, which I don’t think he will, so I’d expect to see the ‘maybe my captain then and it’ll be Willock and Torreira in the base. Up top I suspect we’ll see Lacazette, then the three behind him will probably be Martinelli, Özil and then Smith-Rowe or Saka. In theory, it’s not the worst team in the world, but in reality this team, this squad, has looked like it’s on its knees mentally for over a month. A trip to Anfield is hardly the place you’d expect us to do anything special.

I guess some will argue it depends on who plays for Liverpool but Klopp won’t completely chuck in all the kids. He’s no mug. He’ll know that with home advantage and players flying high confidence-wise, he could take this Arsenal team, even with a rotated and potentially youthful sprinkle in it. The full backs will probably come out but he’ll drop Milner and Lallana will come in to the midfield, most likely with Origi playing along with the highly rated Brewster. But the rest will most likely have some time rested at first at least, with Klopp more than likely to name a stronger bench if he needs to.

So perhaps there is a ray of hope for us, if we’d have been playing with some momentum, but we look all over the place and all of the jokes about the “B Team” being more enjoyable and free-flowing seem to have evaporated after that Vitoria performance. The hope is that it’s a one-off because whilst I don’t think we’ll get through tonight, I do want to see us play better, more creative and attacking football this evening.

Maybe that is an Özil-inspired one, maybe it isn’t, but right now I just want some positives to talk about tomorrow morning.

Catch you then.

Still, it can’t be worse than this interminable interlull. It really is getting on my wick and yet here we are, still in it, on a Wednesday knowing we have another five days before The Arsenal even show up to play some football. It’s maddening. The only stuff to talk about is how Matteo Guendouzi is nominated for the ‘Golden Boy’ award. Meh.

A big fat meh.

Those awards are pointless in a sport for which teams are awarded trophies. It’s not about the individual in football, it’s about the collective, so this type of award really doesn’t push any of my buttons I’m afraid. It’s like when Olivier Giroud won the ‘Puskas Award’ for the best goal. So what? It was great to watch it again and I’m sure Giroud was happy to receive a shiny trinket, but you can’t tell me that the next day anybody was jumping for joy and asking when the parade would take place, can you?

Nope. So this particular nomination does nothing but fill a bit of a void in the pointlessness of international football and even then it doesn’t really work. Give me back the proper game please. The one in which we play every weekend and see The Arsenal in action.

I guess the Eddie Nketiah hat trick for the under-21s is worth a mention though. I’ve just watched them a second ago and I have to say they all look like decent poachers goals. Very ‘Wrightyesque’ I think. You can see why Ian Wright made the trip up to Leeds to watch him a few weeks back because Nketiah looks like he’s modelling his game on the Arsenal legend. Playing off the shoulders of defenders, getting into space in the box, good finishing from close range, all hallmarks of Wrighty’s Arsenal career.

That’s why I’m hoping that Bielsa gets his head back on and starts Nketiah more. We’re into November now and some of the noises I’ve seen in the press are that Bielsa still doesn’t 100% trust him from the start and that’s why Patrick Bloody Bamford is getting more game time. Nketiah seems to be used as an impact sub for a lot of the time this season and when we had a Leeds fan on the GunnersTown show a month or so back, he was singing Nketiah’s praises, but did sound out the fact that Bielsa has a lot of loyalty to players, which may be why Bamford is starting.

Arsenal will be monitoring this closely though. Leeds had the most impressive PowerPoint on Nketiah by the sounds of it and that’s why he went there, but unless he’s starting on a more regular basis by Christmas, surely Arsenal should be sounding out Leeds for a recall? After all we could get him back, maybe give him an FA Cup third round game, then send him off to somewhere like Bristol City who were interested in him before. Bristol City have also been a good platform for Tammy Abraham and a few others (I think Afobe went there too?) and so if Leeds don’t give Nketiah more game time, I’d have thought Arsenal might be inclined to have words.

This transition for Nketiah into a first team regular needs to happen soon. We have an ageing Aubameyang who I reckon has another couple of seasons at the top before his star starts to fade slightly, so by then we need a ready-made goalscoring replacement. If that’s Nketiah I think he needs this season in the Championship and then maybe next season at a Premier League club, before he steps up to The Arsenal on a full time basis. But that trajectory needs to include regular game time, not just bench appearances.

We’ll have to watch this one with intrigue, but I bet Arsenal’s Loan Management Team are watching it more closely, because there could be a lot riding on the success of Nketiah.

Right, that’s about it from me today, I’m going to try and dose off (probably unsuccessfully) on this Met Line train into London. Catch you all tomorrow.

It will be a good test and we should be pleased that we have a chance to see what some of them are made of. And besides, let’s be honest, with City and Liverpool in the competition it was always going to be tough to win it anyway. I saw one person describe it as The Manchester City cup and given their squad its hard to disagree.

Elsewhere in the competition Man United drew against Rotherham and then went through on penalties and I’m sure I saw a stat which said that United haven’t scored an open play goal in the first half this season. I’ve also heard noises about how poor Lingard has been and how United are missing Rashford and potentially Martial next Monday. Their squad is ravaged and looking like it’s totally out of form.

But we all know Arsenal are coming to town and so I’m looking forward to seeing Lingard get his usual goal against us, Martial and Mason-effing-Greenwood bag goals and for the latter to ‘come of age’, followed by our usual defeat at Old Trafford.

It’s almost become embarrassing. I don’t think there’s another team that has gone to Old Trafford as many times as us in the league and not at least won once. But we’ve all got a little more used to it now so I suppose we just have to suck it up and take it when it comes.

That is of course unless Unai Emery has a master plan. Or unless he changes something from the last few league games, because it hasn’t really been working, has it? Perhaps that’s a personnel thing and I can understand why some fans are calling for changes after the midweek rout that we inflicted on Forest. But as we all know Forest at home and United away are two different animals entirely. In an away game, a big game, a game in which the pressure is on a little more, the manager might opt for experience and I suspect that means returns for many of the senior players.

Where I think he could consider a change or two is at the back. We’ve been leaking goals as it is so to bring in the in-form Chambers and perhaps someone like Kieran Tierney, might work well against United, so I wonder if he’s tempted. Certainly after Tierney showed just how full of running he is against Forest. There’s also almost a full week of training that he can do before the game itself so it gives us another opportunity to get his engine up, running and purring for the trip to the North West.

I suspect it’ll be tomorrow when he gives his press conference and the hope from us fans is that we hear him talk about how impressed he was with the young players, how some of them have forced him in to rethinking the starting XI, how some are ‘knocking on the door’. Whether that happens in Manchester would remain to be seen, but it would send a message to those that have been playing regularly in the league:

Play well or don’t play.

And that’s what we all want as fans. We want there to be repercussions for poor performances. We want there to be a meritocracy in place. It drives players on more and ensures they are kept on their toes, always motivated to improve.

I don’t think Emery is delivering that at the moment though. The persistence in Xhaka, the hauling off of Özil for Ceballos on Tuesday, these sort of things tell us that the manager is just like many others: he has his favourites and if you’re in the “in” crowd then you get a bit more of a pass. The best example of that is the different treatment of Özil and Xhaka. Both have had poor spells but Özil was hooked very early last season. Xhaka is going through one now but I don’t believe anyone thinks he won’t be picked on Monday night.

For all of the words of Emery, there appears to be little substance when it comes to this idea of meritocracy, not from where I’m standing.

But hey, I’m not going to jump on this hipster bandwagon and start calling for his head, because frankly it’s just not needed this early in to the season. We just need this Arsenal team to feel like it’s clicking. And we need to feel like Emery has found that solution to ensure it does.

Catch you all tomorrow.

It didn’t matter that it was bucketing it down because for those that made the trip to The Emirates last night they were treated to a goal-fest and some great performances from some of those rotated players.

In fact I’d say that there wasn’t one player on the pitch who didn’t perform well last night. Even Emi Martinez – who had nothing to do other than a bit of catching practice – still looked assured and confident in goal.

It was how a game should be against lesser opposition and despite the fact Villa are a Premier League side, the way we controlled the match was how I’d expect us to play last weekend, rather than what we got served up last Sunday. That was tripe and the weekend before was tripe but last night was lovely stuff. It was like a packet of steak McCoys crisps – delicious until the last morsel.

Emery totally rotated as we’d expect and brought in Martinez, Chambers, Mustafi, Holding and Tierney at the back and from the start we looked comfortable. Forest didn’t have a sniff. Chambers and Tierney closed space out wide but also delivered in the final third too. I haven’t seen who was man of the match but Calum Chambers gets it for me. On that wide right he chalked up two assists and the first was a joy to watch. A volley-cross straight on to Martinelli’s head and the Brazilian-Italian finished with a clever flick into the ‘keepers near post. Great for Chambers, great for Martinelli, great for Arsenal.

Chambers bossed it all night, winning the ball back in defence, providing an attacking threat, he was grand. And on the other side Tierney looked impressive too. He’s got a burst of pace that got him beyond the Forest full back all night and even on 70-odd minutes, he was able to shunt the ball on the outside of a midfielder and beat him for pace. Such an engine room and hopefully that’s a sign of things to come. He has to be a consideration for Old Trafford now, especially given that we have almost a week to recover, with the game on a Monday night.

But so too do so many players. I thought Mustafi didn’t put a foot wrong. I thought Holding was strong and even got himself a returning goal. We need to be realistic that he won’t come in and be the second coming of Cannavaro from day one, instantly plugging any of our holes in our defence in the Premier League, but by Jove did he do enough to get the manager thinking about next week I bet. Especially given that he’s now completed 90 minutes without any issues, it seems.

In midfield Unai picked Torreira and although he played a little bit further than the base on the back four, his inclusion made an obvious improvement, because he was tenacious and helped to turn the ball over on multiple occasions.

With him was Joe Willock, who’s energy and movement meant there was always space, whilst in front of them was a three which included Nelson who did pretty good and got his first goal of the season, Smith-Rowe who was tidy (although it was a shame to see him come off with a head injury at halftime), then floating in between the lines was Mesut Özil. He has never been a ‘blood and thunder’ kind of player but he created opportunities, he popped up in spaces, he showed us that he has something to give. I thought the substitution of him for Ceballos was a little weird given how little time he’s had, but it’s a minor footnote on an impressive evening too.

The goals for Martinelli up top will have done him the world of good too. I’ve spoken to a couple of people who have said that he’s been very impressive at training and the club have been pleasantly surprised with how well he’s settled in. Given that Eddie Nketiah is banging them in at Leeds and we have no back up (or so we thought) for Auba and Laca, these two goals last night are massively important. They’re important because strikers need goals for confidence and managers need to feel like they can trust players. Unai Emery will have gone in to the dressing room at full time knowing that whilst Martinelli isn’t anywhere near the finished article, he has the ability to at least cover in these cup games this side of Christmas at least.

One could caveat the performance by saying that it was a team from a lower division but I’m not doing that today. We’ve picked apart performances all season already so when one like this comes along you just need to enjoy it. And I thoroughly did enjoy it I have to say. From start to finish. It was good football, with plenty of goals, plus we did the basics right from back to front.

A quick shout out for Saka and Bellerin too. The Spaniard came on and almost immediately had an impact, driving the ball across goal for Willock to tap in, whilst the young wide forward once again looked a handful for the half of football he got. Perhaps he’ll feel he was owed one after being subbed at the weekend.

The hope now is that Emery can bottle what this is and replicate it away at Old Trafford next Monday. If we’re going to win there for the first time in 15 years in the league, he’s going to need to, but then again perhaps there are a few players from last night who should be pushing him for a start.

We shall see.

We all know he’s going to rotate and rotate heavily and he even said so himself on the official website yesterday when the team was announced. The good news is that we might get to see both Bellerin and Tierney play a part and if I was to guess I’d think they’ll give both of them a run out in the second half for 20 minutes or so. Stepping up from Friday to Tuesday and starting seems a little much, especially given the step up in competition from Under-23s to the senior team, but 20 minutes allows the players to feel their way back in to the team and it even makes them available for the United clash on Monday, although again, I’d probably suggest that is from the bench.

But the rest of the team will be heavily rotated. It will be another chance for minutes for Martinez and whilst I’d love to say he’ll probably have a quiet evening, this Arsenal team seem to concede chances whoever plays, so I suspect he’ll be called into action a few times tonight. Maybe that’d be good for him; if he wants to stake a claim for ousting Bernd Leno in goal then he needs to show that he can handle all situations and you don’t really get the chance to prove yourself as a ‘keeper if you spend the whole evening standing in your own box watching the play unfold.

In front of him really intrigues me. Mustafi and Holding must surely play, but will they be the centre two? Emery could also play with Chambers as a right back to give him minutes in prep for United away and that seems like a sensible option, but does that put him at risk of injury? Maitland-Niles serves his suspension tonight so I wonder if he does play Chambers with a view to restoring Ainsley on Monday. That would certainly make sense given Maitland-Niles’ pace and the fact he’ll be up against Daniel James, but it’s a thought process for another day. For now it’s about our back four and I think I’ve been able to pick three from that, but left back will be a question mark. If Tierney had more game time under his belt i’d be suggesting starting him with a view to bringing him off after 60 minutes, but it might be a gamble too far, so does he dip into the under-23s and give Tolaji Bola a try? Might be worth it. Would save Kolasinac’s legs too.

In midfield I suspect we’ll get a complete overhaul and I suspect that means Torreira, Willock and maybe we should give Smith-Rowe a shot centrally. Torreira should be sitting deep, Willock as the energy from box-to-box, then Smith-Rowe with the trickery, graft and forward running, operating more like the 10 in the middle. Of course I think Ozil should be getting some minutes in his legs but we all know that Emery doesn’t like the German and so I do wonder if he offers Smith-Rowe that opportunity to impress.

Then, either side of Smith-Rowe (or, on the off-chance, Mesut Ozil), we could see Nelson and I think Emery should give Saka another shot. He did well against Villa but only got 45 minutes and I think he’s deserving of more game time. The other question is whether we play Martinelli out wide but I have a sneaky suspicion that Martinelli will be leading the line tonight. Emery surely can’t play Aubameyang, can he? It would be playing with fire and given he himself has mentioned that we are playing so soon after the game on Sunday, I can’t see it happening. He could play Pepe but the Ivorian played the full 90 too on Sunday, so for me it will be one of Martinelli, maybe Nelson, perhaps even Tyrese John-Jules, given that he’s been bagging goals at Under-23 level this season. Heck, that works for me, just as long as we rest our main man with the goals right now.

As for Nottingham Forest, they’ve switched between a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-1-4-1 formation this season and I suspect we’ll get the latter tonight. They beat Barnsley at home on Saturday and have built a pretty decent undefeated run so far, picking up six wins and three draws in all competitions. They’ve also turned over Fulham and Swansea, with Swansea currently sitting second, so they’ll feel they have nothing to lose tonight.

Sadly we won’t be seeing the return of ‘The Corporal’ as he’s injured but hopefully we will see him in the stands or something like that. It would be good to get him waving to fellow gooners at some stage, but when focus returns to the pitch we need to see some of these reserves show they are ready to give Unai a selection headache. I’m hoping that in defence that is certainly the case because the way it is now we want those central defenders to be giving him a proper decision to make. We are woeful with Sokratis and LUiz at the back so let’s have Chambers, Holding, hey – even Mustafi, giving those two a run for their money.

It’s not on TV tonight but I’m sure there’ll be a stream to watch, so let’s hope that Arsenal can do the business and see us in to the next round.

Of course there will be those that want to temper the feeling by telling themselves – and probably you on social media – that we played a pretty average Eintracht Frankfurt team and yes, they spurned chances, probably should have at least had one against us. But right now what we needed was a win and a comprehensive one in the end too. And that’s the most important element to take from last night.

Unai Emery has had a few detractors chucking a few stats bombs in his direction and the result is that we’ve seen some naysayers trying to dig at him online all week, so he too needed the win, although given the rotation he went for you wouldn’t have thought it. But perhaps it’s an admission from the manager that even in these early stages there is a need to rotate players. Maybe not because they are fatigued, but maybe instead to keep the match fitness of some of the players in reserve fit enough so that if called upon, they aren’t going to come in completely cold.

That’s fair enough from my perspective, but whilst yesterday saw starts for Martinez (who made some smart saves by the way), Chambers and Mustafi, we also got a decent blend of youth too, with Saka, Smith-Rowe, Willock, all starting too. And all three of those youngsters performed well.

The headline grabbed of course was Saka, but I’ll come to his performance in a minute, because I thought there were plenty of positives to draw. For one thing Joe Willock showed just how much he is progressing once again. He was energetic, lively, always happy to show for the ball and really once again stepped up his development. His goal was fortunate but reward for a good performance and he can be pleased that once again he has Arsenal fans purring at his prospects.

Smith-Rowe was quieter, but he still showed some flashes of the player we saw last season. He only lasted an hour but let’s not forget he’s not started a competitive game in 2019 so even if he was a 26-year-Old regular for the team coming back he would have looked rusty, so there’s no real issue for me in his quieter performance. And that performance only felt so because Saka really did deliver for us last night. He looked good in flashes last season in a few of the League Cup games but last night he showed how far his education has brought him, because he bossed it. He picked up an assist, a ‘sort of’ assist for Willock’s goal (although I’m always dubious when those types of assists are basic passes and it’s the goal scorer who does more of the work), as well as a sumptuous finish with his left foot placing it perfectly in to the corner of the goal beyond the Frankfurt ‘keeper. It’s the sort of goal you see Aubameyang scored and when the Gabon international put his arm around him when celebrating, you wonder if he might have said something similar in his ear.

Saka is a talent. He’s a driver with the ball and he’s not afraid to beat his man. Whether that talent converts in to consistency remains to be seen – after all Iwobi started on the same foot – but the basics are there and now it’s up to him to see just how far he can go.

So he and Willock were on the scoresheet and of course we had to get Auba on there too which gave us a pretty comprehensive score line. The reality was far from it and what we saw from Frankfurt – as well as our own defence – was that our problems have hardly been solved following a supposed team meal wash up following the Watford debacle. I thought Chambers had a torrid time all night but he clearly isn’t a right back and so it was a bit strange for me that Emery decided that Mustafi should play in the centre of defence instead of Chambers. Mustafi is more comfortable at right back and has a little more recovery pace and Chambers had a tough old time against Kostic. Conversely I thought the current two most maligned players – Mustafi and Xhaka – played quite well. Both needed this kind of performance and Mustafi hardly put a foot wrong. Emery has said he is going to integrate the German back in the team and after Sokratis’ couple of stinker performances I do wonder if Emery will consider other options on Sunday, away from the Greek. I think he certainly should because it tells the players that the standards have to be of the highest quality.

Frankfurt tested us and the game was far too open last night, much like it was on Sunday, but the opposition weren’t gifted goals and the result was a clean sheet and good win in the end. If we’d have replicated that on Sunday there’s still be a lot of positivity.

As it is there are still plenty of people adding in caveats and asterisks in relation to last night’s game. I understand that and Emery will too. The way to nip that in the bud, however, is to get three points and make it look good against Villa on Sunday.

Catch you all tomorrow.

(For the avoidance of doubt, I hate Beyoncé’s music)

My brain is clearly desperate for its next Arsenal fix though, because last night I dreamt that we got our first penalty of the season and for some bizarre reason, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang decided that under the new rules he would take his kick from the halfway line. Sadly his penalty kick floated straight into the arms of Ben Foster and I woke up a few minutes later genuinely believing that Auba’s stupidity had cost us points.

Thankfully the game hasn’t been played yet and thankfully the crazy rules my brain invented aren’t into play as we speak. Although let’s be honest, with some of the rules this season like that weird handball rule, it could possibly only be a matter of time.

A bit like it was only a matter of time in which we got some sound bites from departing Mkhitaryan, who whilst away with Armenia, has spoken about how unhappy he was in England. It doesn’t really come as any surprise to be honest. He was a passenger so far this season and for large parts of last season was more Ghost of Mkhitaryan’s Past than the real thing. He’s one of our highest paid players delivering some of the weakest output and so the club were always going to look at moving him on if they could.

And for him the Italian league is probably more suited. It’s a slower league that doesn’t require the same level of intensity as the Premier League does and having watched him for over 18 months flit in and out of games, we’re all probably glad that he could get a chance to prove he wasn’t totally broken by his time in England.

And for us if he can find some sort of form in Italy then it’s happy days. We need him to recapture some because at the end of the season he’s still going to have a year left on his deal at The Arsenal and comments like this will hardly make anybody desperate to have him back. At this stage we all have to admit that it’s best for everyone involved to pray he’s a success in Italy because of it does happen, at least we’ll be able to get some money for him, as well as getting him off the wage bill.

And it’s a wage bill that is looking a heck of a lot trimmer these days than six months ago. I don’t have access to the exact data but enough people who are better at making guestimations than me have speculated that it’s easily north of a million pound a week that has disappeared. That’s one heck of a rebalancing exercise and whilst there’s still plenty more more work to be done, of course, the fact that we’ve been able to be this ruthless can only stand us in good stead in terms of looking to run the club more efficiently.

But efficiency and sound financial management doesn’t get you far on the pitch, it’s the players, so the hope is that after a tough couple of games we can kick start the season with a good victory this weekend against Watford at The Vicarage. More on that game as the players return and we have an idea on who is fit and who isn’t.

In the absence of any major news the club did an ‘Ask Unai’ section on social media in the last week and his words have gone up on the official site. It’s funny because I still think that 50% of what he says doesn’t really say anything at all, like your classic politician just filling air, whilst not giving anything away. But he does have some interesting points and it’s pleasing to hear him talk about how it’s just as important to see the rise of the young players like Willock, Nelson and Smith-Rowe, to add to Maitland-Niles in the first team. These players are the reason the club has been able to offload some of the expensive deadwood from last season but they still represent a gamble by the club. All of them will need to make some form of significant contribution this season if we’re going to get somewhere or go deep in competitions, so whilst we can all get excited about the likes of Pepe, it’s also those young players we should be watching just as keenly.

We have a very young average age now. I believe it’s one of the lowest in the Premier League and with that also comes the need for patience because those players will have patches of form that they won’t be able to immediately recover from. But it’s all part of the learning process. Think about how Guendouzi’s form dipped a little towards the end of last season. That could happen to any of the new players we have so the onus is on us as fans to cut the players a little slack.

But as well as that the onus is on the coach and the back room footballing staff to be able to recognise when a player suffers a dip and bring them out of the firing line if needed. Too often in recent years players have been played to see if they can ‘play through’ their dip in form. Sometimes that does more bad than good.

The good news is we have a squad that looks a little more balanced with players of different ages and stages in their careers and the hope is that this enables Unai to juggle the playing time which keeps us competitive but doesn’t, as Wenger would say, “kill” any young players careers.

Catch you all tomorrow.

Utterly ridiculous.

It’s utterly ridiculous because not only does it mean that away fans are going to have to essentially take an additional day off work to travel in the morning on 6th November, but some will probably also have to head out on the Tuesday.

That’s a pain in the arse any way you look at it but that’s just the away fans. How about the home fans? Can you imagine what the atmosphere is going to be like? Unless the home fans at Vitoria are all taking half days, then it’s going to be pretty eerie, because I bet everyone isn’t going to take holiday to get themselves to the game.

It’s just another black mark against a competition which, let’s face it, might as well not exist until the quarter finals. You know in FIFA on the PlayStation/Xbox when you can ‘simulate match’? Yeah, let’s just do that for the group stages, can we? I wonder if Unai would take it right now if he was offered the chance.

Along with ludicrous choices for cup final venues, this competition just feels like it’s becoming more and more farcical. We’re all just waiting for the next time UEFA can ‘banter’ us off. They’ll probably start chucking in ‘power plays’ soon, where the goal gets replace by one the width of the pitch from corner to corner for fifteen minutes in a half, just to test the ‘excitement levels’.

Suffice to say I won’t be going to Portugal which, I have to say, I’m a little sad about because it’s on my birthday and I had been talking to The Management about seeing Porto as a short city break.

I know, real ‘first world problems’ for me personally but if I try to detach myself from that, I do feel for the home fans. There’s something different about evening games and given they’re hardly in this competition every year, it seems a little harsh to be denying their home fans that.

UEFAs reasoning is weak as well. Stating that games on Thursday featuring Porto and Braga mean that policing numbers are stretched. I mean pull the other one, it’s got bells on. Firstly, why can’t they alternate matches home and away that week? And secondly, why not just flex by bringing in support from other areas? What happens in that area normally? Do these teams always play on different days? And what happens when they play each? Do they act differently then?

This is mollycoddling of the highest order by UEFA. They’ll talk up the health and safety issues but the reality is that they just don’t care that much. They didn’t in Baku for the final and where that was located, so what difference does it make now? Of course an additional day also provides additional opportunity for TV coverage and therefore more cash in the coffers. But of course, UEFA are all about the ‘good of the game’, aren’t they?

On a separate and more positive note, last night on the show we got to talking about Matteo Guendouzi, touching on Deschamps and his caution with our mop-haired midfielder. Deschamps has understandably looked to play down his role and instead just urged caution to let him grow at his own pace. Obviously that’s being helped at The Arsenal but it can’t hurt to hear words from the French national team manager about not over-hyping a player. Our own recent history is littered with promising players who never really made that final step up to greatness and whilst we can all be pleased with Guendouzi’s start let’s not forget that he has his off days too.

We also talked about the type of midfielder he is. I joked that there’s so many different types of midfield role these days that we might never know, but talk of him becoming a box-to-box midfielder are interesting from my perspective. If we think about our most recently departed b2b Aaron Ramsey, Guendouzi has a different playing style in my opinion. What I loved in the NLD was how often in the second half he pressed a little higher and was a little more aggressive in intercepting the ball higher up the pitch. That and his vision for a pass and the way he moves the ball around the pitch is really positive. But he’s not that archetypal ‘box-to-box’ right now. Not in my opinion.

For one thing the archetypal ‘box-to-box’ does running in both directions. Guendouzi is looking to play the call forward and he is positive in his passing lines, but he isn’t exactly the best when running back to goal and last season we saw examples of that when he didn’t track back for Rennes’ third goal away from home and he was also ghosted by Pogba in the middle of the park in the FA Cup game.

Of course he can improve these sides of his game and perhaps even with his goalscoring, but I wouldn’t put him down as a box-to-box just yet, not without a little more refining in his game.

He’s a creative midfielder but not a ten, he’s not really a six in the deep lying role and when you compare him to Ceballos who looks more like the creative eight, he isn’t really that. So perhaps he needs to find his position and everyone needs to know it before we have an idea on just how far his talent will take him?

Just some thoughts to ponder on a Tuesday morn.

Catch you all tomorrow.

And they’re worth talking about because of how Emery might approach the competition this year. It’s our third in the Europa League and with the manager having just a year left on his deal, the Powers That Be at Arsenal have already publicly been clear about what the target is. I think it’s obvious that it’s Champions League or Bust for Unai but that gives him some pondering to do in these early stages of this particular competition.

Last season Emery went with a senior team who picked up maximum points and so he could rotate a little in the latter part of the group stages. He then swapped things around when we got to quarters, semis and the final but ultimately we fell short, which has left us all lamenting why he didn’t put more emphasis on the league right at the business end.

I suspect it might be a case of “once bitten, twice shy” for Emery this season and I think he’ll be looking very closely at the balance of the team compared to last season. And I think the hint in that is the inclusion of players like Mavropanos and Joel Lopez. Lopez is a left back that, I’ll be honest, needed a little bit of Googling from yours truly here and given that very fact I think it’s a wee hint that the Europa League team might be heavily rotated from the start this season.

The thing is though, much like the season before last when Wenger had his first soiree into the Europa League for decades, I wonder if Emery will undertake some heavy rotation to give more players games. If you look at that squad you could probably pick and XI for the weekend and then one for midweek right now. Emi Martinez in goal; a back four of Calum Chambers, Mustafi, Mavropanos and Lopez, a midfield of Willock, Torreira and Özil further forward, followed by a front three of Nelson, Martinelli and Saka or, if you need it, one of our main striking trio in the first team.

I’d be up for that as well. We need to be in a position where the Premier League takes precedence – certainly at this stage in the season – and that means avoiding playing first team players on a Thursday and then a Sunday. It makes no sense whatsoever this side of Christmas and I hope Unai dabbles in plenty of rotation this time around.

I also hope that some of those young players step up. Last season it was great to see Smith-Rowe break through and if he can get fit and get himself more minutes in the League Cup and Europa League between now and the new year it will be great for him, great for us, potentially giving him more confidence and more experience. Then, if the conditions are right, perhaps a loan move to give him more game time in the new year with a view to him breaking through to the first team next season.

That is especially so if you look at the Ceballos situation. He looks good and there’s a headline in the English version of Marca which sums up just how influential he was yesterday evening. That’s great to see and it’s brilliant that he’s ours, but the fact that it’s for this season only is a little sad and you just know that when the season ends, he’ll be on his way to Madrid as a more polished player.

Which is why we could really do with Smith-Rowe’s evolution continuing this season. Wouldn’t it be great if this season is used to give Smith-Rowe more minutes, more games under his belt, then look at him as a possible replacement when the inevitable happens and Real ask for their new and improved Ceballos back?

Of course I’m projecting quite a linear progression here and football has far too many variables to work out that well for us. But at this stage we just have to hope that someone like Smith-Rowe can do the business this season and look even better than last season. Let’s just cross everything in the hope that happens.

See you in the morrow. Happy Friday Gooners.

It’s a move that, quite frankly, i’m delighted with on many counts. When he arrived at The Arsenal in that swap deal with Alexis I thought we might be able to patch together the pieces of the broken player that Jose Mourinho left behind at United. But as time wore on and 18 or so months later we see, that was always a bit of a pipe dream, because we never really got the player who was so electric whilst at Dortmund. And after a year and a half of being at Arsenal, given his age, I don’t think that player will ever return.

It’s a shame really because given the Alexis transfer to United went so horribly wrong it would have been delightful to see Mkhi make the step up. But we got barely any end product, a player who looked a little bit lost at times, epitomised by his cameo performance on Sunday which was complete with misplaced passes and mis-control of the football. When we needed a spark at the weekend with Laca not able to do 90 minutes he stepped forward and showed us just why Arsenal were so willing to get rid.

He delivered us nine goals and ten assists in nearly sixty games. That’s less than one meaningful bit of end product every three games. If you take into account that he was one of our highest paid players on £200k-a-week and was in a front three at many times last season, that simply isn’t good enough. Last season we had issues with our attacking players – other than Auba and Laca – delivering end product. We were too reliant on those two and we needed our wide forwards to pick up the slack. Both Iwobi and Mkhitaryan were those players charged with doing that and between them their return was pitiful. It speaks volumes to the new regime that the decision was clearly taken and the club have acted rather ruthlessly to remove those underperforming players and replace them with new and young players to be given a chance.

And that’s the right thing to do. Not only does the Roma loan move free up something like £180k of wages per week, but it opens up opportunities for the likes of Nelson, Martinelli, perhaps even the likes of Smith-Rowe to play out wide and be given game time. We have good young options and when your senior players are just getting in the way of that then you need to make a swift decision. The club did that.

It is a bit odd that Emery still chose to give Mkhitaryan minutes on Sunday though. He could have chosen Nelson, or even Ozil in that attacking trio, yet opted for a guy who would be in Italy playing for a new team just 24 hours later. Perhaps he thought this was one last shot at proving that he could still deliver something for us. If that was in Emery’s thinking then it failed spectacularly and maybe the Spaniard even sanctioned the move after his limp cameo?

Whatever the story behind it, this move is a big nod towards some of the young players because we couldn’t sign anybody else and Nelson or Martinelli now have space in front of themselves with which to take their chance between now and January. If they step up and show their perceived quality then the club will no doubt reward them with more game time. If they don’t then maybe the club will look at its options in January.

Whatever the situation it just serves to highlight that there’s a decisiveness that exists in the current footballing structure that didn’t feel like it was there even over a year ago. Wenger may have gone last summer but the fraud that is Gazidis was still at the club and so now that we have shed that particular piece of corporate deadwood, it feels like we’re a little more reinvigorated.

I also like the make up of our squad. We’re a little younger now, more athletic, it looks like there is a certain type of player we are starting to mould, so all in all I’d say we can be excited to see what the rest of this season can bring.

There was one deal that the club didn’t manage to do outwards, which was that of Mustafi heading out of the door, but I guess nobody’s perfect. Mustafi will now stay at the club until January at least and I suspect he’ll see little football time. The fact that he hasn’t pushed for a move is a bit farcical really because it’s going to make his life more difficult when he does eventually leave. His stock will have fallen and the clubs that are going to be interested in a player who’s barely played any football will be obvious. But that’s just football I guess. He’ll be limited to League Cup and Europa League games and unless there’s a massive defensive crisis he isn’t getting near our first team. That’s his choice and he and the club are just going to have to make the best out of the situation.

Catch you all tomorrow.