The Arsenal FC - Related News and Development for 2019/2020

[Siddonlook11]

They paid 72 Million Pounds for this Ivorian guy....Are you guys kidding me????

Arsenal has been took, they have been had, bamboozled, led astray, run amok...

I watched this guy for the first time yesterday vS TOT, he reminded of African players from the 90's.... Lots energy and running, no real football sence.

It says a lot about you to jump to this conclusion about a player who has only played very little in the league.

If you have watched Pepe play, the one thing he has is football sense or intelligence. Don't talk out of ignorance.

I'm just collecting screenshots of all these Pepe doubters. Wait till he settles in and scores his first goal. I have no doubt that the dude will light up the league

Bro collect screenshots all you want I am one of those that is absolutely pissed at him today ( note I said today ) ... I was also when I watched him at Afcon and I was when we paid for me to get rid of Iwobi.. So he had better come good and come good quickly better than Iwobi etc etc.

Pass eno pass , shoot e no see post , dribble in circles ...haba ....reminded me a lot of Gervinho

[Sleaky72]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... -2016.html

Hate blaming one player but is it a coincidence that in a league of extremely small margins that ever since his signing in 2016!that Arsenal has not made the Top4? His needless penalty against Brighton at the end of the season forced a draw and cost us the champions league to name just one . And this season alone he has already started causing us to drop points. I almost forgot to add his five penalties given up. Emery needs 2 do something or the crowd will force him out if he persists with Xhaka and the man keeps fumbling.

[Nkume]

Why was Iwobi sold?

[tolahs]

After a disappointing result(in the way goals were conceded), the Gooner_nation has in the main gone into clamouring for new players mode. Is that the panacea for our collective depression tho?
I remember when Titi left, many fans were hoping we get a striker of similar stature - how ironic, when you appreciate he was levels above. The argument i made then & still stick to, is that we've an unbeatable work ethic - one that inspires new players to want to integrate into the team. We cannot wait for saviours - that's what happened with Neymar @PSG.
Regardless of the quality of players you have - team discipline when it comes to shape,positional work must be aiming for an "A grade" always.
A well screened backline had Per Mertesacker playing well against great teams. Yesterday, too often we had Son facing up to David or some other CD one-on-one. That's suicidal defending by the team - it was worse seeing the ease with which he got those balls.
Last season i watched ManC away to Liverpool after suffering killer losses the previous season. Pep opted to have one of his FBs with the CDs at all times - so if one was attacking, the other held back.I am sometimes worried Emery isn't getting the right advice regarding our league.
--------------------------------------------

"ALAN SHEARER Watching Arsenal defend is like watching Sunday League football – it’s comical......The lack of protection in front of both back fours will be pretty worrying for their managers."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football ... -football/
----------------------------------
Martin Keown:
Granit Xhaka is like a fire engine that turns up and discovers the house has already burned down - he's that late!
------------------------
If memory serves me right Xhaka conceded a pen against a side towards the end of last season at the Emirates when we were trying to make top 4.

[tolahs]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... -2016.html

Hate blaming one player but is it a coincidence that in a league of extremely small margins that ever since his signing in 2016!that Arsenal has not made the Top4? His needless penalty against Brighton at the end of the season forced a draw and cost us the champions league to name just one . And this season alone he has already started causing us to drop points. I almost forgot to add his five penalties given up. Emery needs 2 do something or the crowd will force him out if he persists with Xhaka and the man keeps fumbling.

You ain't blaming nobody but calling out the obvious - maybe if we'd held him to account from the get go, he'll have played with some maturity. He has those blood_rush_to_head_moments that means we're cussed.

[tolahs]

Why was Iwobi sold?

Panic - end of!!!

[Sleaky72]

What a ride for MattyG. From lower division football In France to getting a call up for Les Blues in such a short space UV time. Hopefully this will encourage more young French players 2 come 2 Arsenal and seize their chance when presented.

[Sleaky72]

Why was Iwobi sold?

Panic - end of!!!

Arsenal don’t have a lot of sellable assets that can be replaced. Iwobi was a prime exception. Praying 4 the lad to make Arsenal regret the move. But he has the ghost of Bolaisse and Walcott to exorcise in the minds of Toffee fans but so far so good

[cchinukw]

Any Nwakili news?

Arsenal U23 squad.

[tolahs]

Any Nwakili news?

Arsenal U23 squad.

Didn't make the grade - i am afraid!!!

[cchinukw]

Any Nwakili news?

Arsenal U23 squad.

Didn't make the grade - i am afraid!!!

He stated that there is no truth to that deal. And the story isn't timestamped which leads me to believe it was posted before Nwakali's reported denial of that deal:

August 2nd and 3rd news reporting Huesca deal is on the cards
https://arseblog.news/2019/08/kelechi-n ... to-huesca/

https://www.completesports.com/nwakali- ... m-arsenal/

August 5th - Kelechi distances self from Huesca reports
https://www.allnigeriasoccer.com/read_n ... ?nid=33174


See this link below where he is listed as a forward for the U223 squad.

https://www.worldfootball.net/teams/arsenal-fc-u23/

[cchinukw]

Any Nwakili news?

Arsenal U23 squad.

Didn't make the grade - i am afraid!!!

He stated that there is no truth to that deal. And the story isn't timestamped which leads me to believe it was posted before Nwakali's reported denial of that deal:

August 2nd and 3rd news reporting Huesca deal is on the cards
https://arseblog.news/2019/08/kelechi-n ... to-huesca/

https://www.completesports.com/nwakali- ... m-arsenal/

August 5th - Kelechi distances self from Huesca reports
https://www.allnigeriasoccer.com/read_n ... ?nid=33174


See this link below where he is listed as a forward for the U223 squad.

https://www.worldfootball.net/teams/arsenal-fc-u23/

Tolahs my bad. Its now official from the horse's mouth:

https://www.arsenal.com/news/kelechi-nw ... ins-huesca

[Waffiman]

Details again. This team is about getting the simple things right.

Playing with our hearts not our heads and derailment once more. That first half, our players went gun-ho, lost the plot completely.

We go all out for the goal. Spurs hit a long ball, Sokratis goes fishing for a first header he can’t win, no cover for next phase of play, two Spurs on to the loose ball, it leads to a shot on goal. Leno should push it out for a corner, he makes a terrible mistake and they have a goal.

Xhaka, falls for a sucker punch. Spurs know, they play for it because he is the only person on the pitch, you can frustrate to make that type of idiotic mistake. He has not had a breather, he was closed down and harassed in that midfield. But Guendouzi was having the finest game of his Arsenal career. The game many of us saw coming from his debut around this time last year. Guendouzi, Willock and Ceballos now means Xhaka's place in the team is not cast in stone anymore.

Today, I came to the conclusion that we can only eradicate the sort of stupidity is to get players with calm heads and maturity to play with their heads. To this end, we need a dominant CD and CM in the air. The irony is Mustafi is the one CD who is very good in the air.
//
One reason we got Leno for £24m is his tendency to make mistakes. Last season, he made the most mistakes (5) leading to goals. The much maligned Xhaka and Mustafi made 2 such mistakes. Leno will be a world class goalie if he eliminates his errors. He has time.

But we saw today my gripe about balance in your squad. Mikh prefers to play right side, so when we lost Laca, with Iwobi sold, there was no left sided attacker. Today we saw the folly of the decision to sell Iwobi. It was a problem today, and will be a problem for the rest of the season.

For all the blame Xhaka gets today he actually saw the first goal coming....if una observe well he motioned Sokratis to go back before that lomng ball was played and what did yam head do he came forward and actually jumped for the sameball as Xhaka !!! it was brain less...then he starts to run back half heartedly and did not see Ericsson ..seriously that is our defensive lead

I saw that. To be fair, he leads and tries to sort basic and systemic problems. Sokratis was braindead to go for that header. However, his own propensity for errors undermines all the good work he has done. His critics are always quick to jump on him.

Notice how quiet they all were about Xhaka after he put in top display against Liverpool. I am not perfect, but I try to be balanced about these things. You cannot defend what he did for the penalty, it was s truly shocking tackle which has upset a lot of the fan base in social media. Not those with an agenda against the player are making hay. This is their moment and it is cowardly some of their attacks on the player.

Football is all about combinations, Torreira was not match fit and the game flew past him. This did not help Xhaka who had to do much more work. When Ceballis came on, he had the sort of space, the Liverpool midfield snuffed out of him and he made a huge difference. With Poch ordering his midfield to get tight on Ceballos, Xhaka got space to play and he improved.

But the fact remains, in that game Guendouzi performance had a huge reliance on Xhaka covering his advanced attacking forays. It is what midfield play is all about - combinations.

In Torreira, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Willock and Ceballos, we have options and all sorts of combinations. Only time will tell if this is a good thing or bad thing for Emery.

Problem is that either Emery never seems to have clarity about his ideas, or Xhaka is a lost cause.

The four CMs you list are essentially box-2-box MFs. Xhaka needs to sacrifice his game for the team.

All day, his positioning was never in reference to his MF partners or the space behind them.

What an absolute stupid display!!!!!

For anyone to come here and defend him is frankly idiotic!

No need for insults. We should be bigger than this.

I don't know how regularly you watch Arsenal but there are issues at our club as reflected in our squad and team. Picking on individual players will not solve the problem.

On to Xhaka, I have also been critical of those parts of his play that merits criticism. However, scapegoating the player is not what I am willing to accept. Torreira was never in the game on our right side, he was not fit, and we could not understand why Emery chose to play him in such a crucial game. No one mentions Torreira, why? Eventually, he got subbed off, despite losing Laca, we improved as a team and this contributed to our much better 2nd half display.

Apart from Xhaka, Emery was back tinkering and over analysing again. It is the first time in the league Emery has started, a straight line three midfield or flat midfield three. This is a sort of compromise because he almost always uses 2 interiors or a double-pivot. The flat 4-3-3 lacked creativity. Worse, it also lacked cover, that midfield was not diligent and energetic enough to give a better platform for the front 3 to play. Also, the 4-3-3 did not give good pressing.

On Xhaka's positioning not being in reference to his fellow midfielders, I completely disagree. Where Xhaka's fellow midfielders checking if their positions where in reference with him? In that stadium, I saw Xhaka continually trying to adjust his positioning and spending so much time trying to organise his team barking orders and trying to cover mistakes especially when Spurs countered. E.g. Son was a problem all that first half because Torreira was not up to the pace of the game with the consequence of the midfield being unbalanced and stretched.

The reasons for us not performing in that first half are numerous and credit must also be given to Spurs too. To single out Xhaka is completely missing the point.

[Waffiman]

Any Nwakili news?

Arsenal U23 squad.

Didn't make the grade - i am afraid!!!

Incorrect. Arsenal applied for a work permit again this summer for Kelechi and failed.

I have covered this on another thread.

[Mister Dolly]

SO Mikhi is offloaded to Roma....can someone take Ozil on a buy one get one free deal please..

[Tunisian Gooner]

Details again. This team is about getting the simple things right.

Playing with our hearts not our heads and derailment once more. That first half, our players went gun-ho, lost the plot completely.

We go all out for the goal. Spurs hit a long ball, Sokratis goes fishing for a first header he can’t win, no cover for next phase of play, two Spurs on to the loose ball, it leads to a shot on goal. Leno should push it out for a corner, he makes a terrible mistake and they have a goal.

Xhaka, falls for a sucker punch. Spurs know, they play for it because he is the only person on the pitch, you can frustrate to make that type of idiotic mistake. He has not had a breather, he was closed down and harassed in that midfield. But Guendouzi was having the finest game of his Arsenal career. The game many of us saw coming from his debut around this time last year. Guendouzi, Willock and Ceballos now means Xhaka's place in the team is not cast in stone anymore.

Today, I came to the conclusion that we can only eradicate the sort of stupidity is to get players with calm heads and maturity to play with their heads. To this end, we need a dominant CD and CM in the air. The irony is Mustafi is the one CD who is very good in the air.
//
One reason we got Leno for £24m is his tendency to make mistakes. Last season, he made the most mistakes (5) leading to goals. The much maligned Xhaka and Mustafi made 2 such mistakes. Leno will be a world class goalie if he eliminates his errors. He has time.

But we saw today my gripe about balance in your squad. Mikh prefers to play right side, so when we lost Laca, with Iwobi sold, there was no left sided attacker. Today we saw the folly of the decision to sell Iwobi. It was a problem today, and will be a problem for the rest of the season.

For all the blame Xhaka gets today he actually saw the first goal coming....if una observe well he motioned Sokratis to go back before that lomng ball was played and what did yam head do he came forward and actually jumped for the sameball as Xhaka !!! it was brain less...then he starts to run back half heartedly and did not see Ericsson ..seriously that is our defensive lead

I saw that. To be fair, he leads and tries to sort basic and systemic problems. Sokratis was braindead to go for that header. However, his own propensity for errors undermines all the good work he has done. His critics are always quick to jump on him.

Notice how quiet they all were about Xhaka after he put in top display against Liverpool. I am not perfect, but I try to be balanced about these things. You cannot defend what he did for the penalty, it was s truly shocking tackle which has upset a lot of the fan base in social media. Not those with an agenda against the player are making hay. This is their moment and it is cowardly some of their attacks on the player.

Football is all about combinations, Torreira was not match fit and the game flew past him. This did not help Xhaka who had to do much more work. When Ceballis came on, he had the sort of space, the Liverpool midfield snuffed out of him and he made a huge difference. With Poch ordering his midfield to get tight on Ceballos, Xhaka got space to play and he improved.

But the fact remains, in that game Guendouzi performance had a huge reliance on Xhaka covering his advanced attacking forays. It is what midfield play is all about - combinations.

In Torreira, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Willock and Ceballos, we have options and all sorts of combinations. Only time will tell if this is a good thing or bad thing for Emery.

Problem is that either Emery never seems to have clarity about his ideas, or Xhaka is a lost cause.

The four CMs you list are essentially box-2-box MFs. Xhaka needs to sacrifice his game for the team.

All day, his positioning was never in reference to his MF partners or the space behind them.

What an absolute stupid display!!!!!

For anyone to come here and defend him is frankly idiotic!

No need for insults. We should be bigger than this.

I don't know how regularly you watch Arsenal but there are issues at our club as reflected in our squad and team. Picking on individual players will not solve the problem.

On to Xhaka, I have also been critical of those parts of his play that merits criticism. However, scapegoating the player is not what I am willing to accept. Torreira was never in the game on our right side, he was not fit, and we could not understand why Emery chose to play him in such a crucial game. No one mentions Torreira, why? Eventually, he got subbed off, despite losing Laca, we improved as a team and this contributed to our much better 2nd half display.

Apart from Xhaka, Emery was back tinkering and over analysing again. It is the first time in the league Emery has started, a straight line three midfield or flat midfield three. This is a sort of compromise because he almost always uses 2 interiors or a double-pivot. The flat 4-3-3 lacked creativity. Worse, it also lacked cover, that midfield was not diligent and energetic enough to give a better platform for the front 3 to play. Also, the 4-3-3 did not give good pressing.

On Xhaka's positioning not being in reference to his fellow midfielders, I completely disagree. Where Xhaka's fellow midfielders checking if their positions where in reference with him? In that stadium, I saw Xhaka continually trying to adjust his positioning and spending so much time trying to organise his team barking orders and trying to cover mistakes especially when Spurs countered. E.g. Son was a problem all that first half because Torreira was not up to the pace of the game with the consequence of the midfield being unbalanced and stretched.

The reasons for us not performing in that first half are numerous and credit must also be given to Spurs too. To single out Xhaka is completely missing the point.

Well said Waffi.

Emery suffering from classic case of theory over application. On paper Emery envisions various scenarios that should work but he is ignoring crucial ingredients of cohension and Chemistry. 4 games numerous back 4 changes, numerous changes in the midfield, variety of front 3 selections etc etc.

It is no coincidence that 2 best players hve been the 2 players that have enjoined the most uninterrupted run in the team in all 4 games i.e Auba and Guendouzi, Emery needs to stop the tinkering, build his core, once cohension and chemistry established he can than be more tactically flexible when the situation calls for it.

[Siddonlook11]

No need for insults. We should be bigger than this.

U dey try o..in this world when will that end on CE ?

Ahhh ok o ..can i yab the players sha ( I promise I no go call them idiots ) I promise not to call other posters idiots ..

I will say things like " nameless" ...."no end product " etc phrases loaded with verbs and less nouns and pronouns ... aka describe the action and not the person.

[Siddonlook11]

Hmmm Sold Mikhi ? chai ..this club don offload some major paychecks o ... thats money in the bank right there !!!

[kajifu]

Today public holiday i rewatch the spurs game and liverpool game,my take for this season
1)Emery is one of our big issue,his selection and over thinking issues will kill us but if he adjust we will be in mix for the league title.
2)That Liverpool game we could have get something out of it if Laca start ahead of Auba
3)Who ever sanction Iwobi sell should not even have a job if Arsenal is a serious team.
4)Some players need to go,better play youths,we have more errors leading to goals than any other club,not acceptable.
5)Who ever sign DL from Chelsea really cut a back deal.He is accident waiting to happen
6)Xhaka is one of the most stupid captain ever to wear our armband.Not good enough to be a starter
7)Pepe need to calm down,he is tryign to forced the issue too much.
8)Guendouzi is now a starter my MOTM against spurs,the boy was too good.
(9)Our guy from Real is good,lets make Real a deal they will not refused.
10)We drop 3 points in our last 2 games that would have put us top in the leagueor same points as leaders.

[kajifu]

Hmmm Sold Mikhi ? chai ..this club don offload some major paychecks o ... thats money in the bank right there !!!

Loan moves and we paying part of his wages i think.So how is likes of Ozil,Mustafi, still in this club?

[kajifu]

LAst week a madman from Cehlsea,
This week Xhaka with another airhead mistake for penalty
So next game who will mke another msitake?
A 20 years old kid play with more experience and purpose than an experience guy with armband...that is where our issues is.

[azuka]

What happened to Ozil? Zero minutes in 2019 ... He should have joined Sanchez at Inter Milan.

Ozil for a game that was going to be fast passed and end to end?

He wasn't missed.

You guys are aware Alexis went to Inter w/o a loan fee paid & ManU pays 300k of his 400k weekly wages. Ceba was struggling 15/20mins in, was he injured?
Ozil had to be held back after the riobbery incident but i think against a tiring Spurs side like today with 30mins to go, he's a far superior passer than anyone we'd on the subs bench!!!

You would have rather had Ozil than Ceballos? Based on what really? Got 2 be sentiments, becuz clearly neither the numbers, the body of work in critical games or the eye test optics support your point here. Just saying IMHO.

Optics is a moot point cos Ozil hasn't featured this season. His pre-season was good.
The sentiment point is wishful thinking. I saw how Georginio Wijnaldum shut Dani down @anfield - that was possible cos Dani holds on to the ball too long - when you take that away from him, he struggles. Think Cesc, Rosicky - i don't know if he can add that to his game soon enough cos if not he'll struggle vs the top 6.
Gooners are projecting way beyond the kids skillset - dribbling ain't zilch if we aren't getting end products. When teams set up in numbers to defend, you gotta penetrate via pace or/& pass.
Irony's you're the geezer holding last season against dude.
---------------------------------------------------
I ain't a Paul Merson fan but he has a point here:
"Unai Emery has missed a trick with a midfield player. The only solution I see would be to play the front three with Mesut Ozil in the hole behind them and have two holding in front of the back four. The four attackers can get on with scoring goals and then the rest can try and keep them out at the other end"

https://www.skysports.com/football/news ... n-disguise
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Haven't I advocated this? Play like that and teams will be more bothered about stopping our front 4 than attacking us. And yes that includes the top 6 teams. Play this against Man City and Liverpool and you expect a basketball like game. But then we have a middle-level coach with safety first mentality.

[Waffiman]

What happened to Ozil? Zero minutes in 2019 ... He should have joined Sanchez at Inter Milan.

Ozil for a game that was going to be fast passed and end to end?

He wasn't missed.

You guys are aware Alexis went to Inter w/o a loan fee paid & ManU pays 300k of his 400k weekly wages. Ceba was struggling 15/20mins in, was he injured?
Ozil had to be held back after the riobbery incident but i think against a tiring Spurs side like today with 30mins to go, he's a far superior passer than anyone we'd on the subs bench!!!

You would have rather had Ozil than Ceballos? Based on what really? Got 2 be sentiments, becuz clearly neither the numbers, the body of work in critical games or the eye test optics support your point here. Just saying IMHO.

Optics is a moot point cos Ozil hasn't featured this season. His pre-season was good.
The sentiment point is wishful thinking. I saw how Georginio Wijnaldum shut Dani down @anfield - that was possible cos Dani holds on to the ball too long - when you take that away from him, he struggles. Think Cesc, Rosicky - i don't know if he can add that to his game soon enough cos if not he'll struggle vs the top 6.
Gooners are projecting way beyond the kids skillset - dribbling ain't zilch if we aren't getting end products. When teams set up in numbers to defend, you gotta penetrate via pace or/& pass.
Irony's you're the geezer holding last season against dude.
---------------------------------------------------
I ain't a Paul Merson fan but he has a point here:
"Unai Emery has missed a trick with a midfield player. The only solution I see would be to play the front three with Mesut Ozil in the hole behind them and have two holding in front of the back four. The four attackers can get on with scoring goals and then the rest can try and keep them out at the other end"

https://www.skysports.com/football/news ... n-disguise
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Haven't I advocated this? Play like that and teams will be more bothered about stopping our front 4 than attacking us. And yes that includes the top 6 teams. Play this against Man City and Liverpool and you expect a basketball like game. But then we have a middle-level coach with safety first mentality.

I still don't get why he has stopped the 4-2-3-1. He really needs to get a settled team together ASAP.