I just don't see us paying £80-100m in Jan on a single player.

Not sure if we can with PSR rules.

Didn't see your previous post Rich.

I can’t see it either.
Sesko I’m sure is the main target, didn’t come in the summer as he wasn’t guaranteed starter and wanted to develop another year at Leipzig. He’d be my guaranteed starter right now.

PSG are about to sign the Napoli winger whose name I can’t spell, we should be in for Bradley Barcola, we’ll probably end up with the Korean guy from PSG

No idea what the Merino signing was all about.

They must have been aware of his limitations in terms of pace and athleticism.

Very good technically but not suited to the pace and intensity of the PL.

What was it Chesea? they sold the Hotel to a sister Company? Something similar would get us out of the *%^@.

There is lots that Arteta should take responsibility for but I’m not sure he’s the biggest problem in the last 2 games. Better finishing wins us both. You can say he should have signed a better striker but the last two games were easy enough chances that it shouldn’t have even needed a world beater striker to score the chances we created. Include the penalty in that, first one Ødegaard has ever missed - that’s not on Arteta

Or Newcastle selling a share worth 5p for £15m

and if no action is taken gainst City we could sue the FA and tie ourselves up in Court actions till the year dot.

City always found a way to delay...............

Having had a few cold beers since the end of the match I have mellowed a bit and I think this post is spot on. Sometimes it happens.

Agree. Ødegaard puts penalty away and it'd be a cruise. It was a top top save.

Raphinha having a great season for Barca. 30 goals and assists in 26 games
We really wanted him 2 years ago, but he wanted Barca more than us

Other than the standard concerns about us not playing quickly and aggressively enough going forward and the lack of creativity I think a real problem when we’re dominating the ball so much is we have 4 players who add virtually nothing to the attack, the entire back 4 because our full backs are not attacking and are built as 1v1 defensive monsters rather than fast pacy winger type full backs who can provide the width whilst the wide forwards go and make more numbers in the box.

Against 10 men we should have had Gabriel and Saliba sorting out anything defensive with a midfield patroller/controller in front. Full backs stationed very wide and players like Martinelli in the half space

Urgh watching those Raya attempts at penalty saves again. He went soo early, every penalty went the other way because they saw so early which way he dived. It worked for him in the Porto shootout but the next penalty he faced was Harry Kane who never delays his penalty but did because he knew Raya dives early, and just slotted it the other way.

Really desperate for 2 attacking signings now. I’d throw £40-50m at Brentford for Mbeumo and I’d go and try again for Sesko.

If one of them does hit it first time rather than laying off to a winger or playing it back to Raya, we will have a data-point.

Working purely from my imagination, maybe Rice? Otherwise I'm envisioning row Z and the corner flag.

But wasn't that only after they had a man sent off? Up to then we were pretty innocuous. When was our first shot on target?

https://x.com/bbcmotd/status/1878495695 ... -j6VVZXEoA

Watch Havertz and Ugarte here. How does the ref yellow card Havertz but not Ugarte. Ugarte would have to have been red carded as a second yellow.

This is the kind of thing that I hate with refs, of course they make mistakes but this isn’t a mistake it’s a deliberate act to avoid red carding Ugarte. If he wanted to bottle it don’t book Havertz

Gidday G79. Been saying it for a while but don’t think buying a single striker is the answer that everyone thinks it will be. A few more goals sure. But the chances to score are created all over the place and that single striker won’t be on the receiving an end of all of them.

What we need is a coach who can teach finishing. It may be just my memory giving me rose tinted glasses but I recall both Martinelli (pre-long term injury), Trossard when he joined and even Ødegaard being far cooler and better finishers than what they are today. makes me think it’s training that’s the problem rather than the whole team collectively putting on concrete boots.

Also little wonder because Arteta was also rubbish at both free kicks and finishing. Often belting the ball way off target.

Don't like to hand Man U bragging rights on anything but I find it hard to get upset .

We offered nothing first half and only started to play once Dalout had his moment of stupidity . Rice should have won it

A battle between two teams ; light years away from the epics involving Bergkamp , Henry , Scholes and Keane

Havertz couldn't hit a bull in the arse with a handful of long grain rice from two metres ; so was very surprised he was so far up the order to take a penalty .

A few more weeks of rest now for the team to recover between PL and CL matches.

I’m struggling with Merino. Games seem to just pass him by. Apparently he made just 7 passes in the first half.

When was the last time we made a biggish signing that didn’t work out and we sold them on relatively quickly for a decent chunk of our money back? We never do this. Compared to other big clubs they seem to be able to cut their losses quicker and better - not all the time of course but we never do this. Expensive players sit and run a deal down with us

Few reports that it’s an ACL knee rupture for Jesus. I honestly can’t remember a season like it. Collectively so many injuries but it’s the cluster injuries in the same positions that are killing us. And these are long term injuries as well.
Forget blaming Arteta for overplaying players, every top manager plays his best players most games. Salah is never rested and never injured for like 8 years now.

Salah has missed 33 games in the past 10 years due to injuries Mr Google says. Still not loads though.

Gidday Soc ..... until we change our style ; an 80 pound addition wont make b****ger all difference .

With our plodding approach Thierry Henry in his prime would struggle to make an impact .

I think Arteta has been given a lot already. Contrast his spendings versus Wenger.

He was allowed to buy a 100 mil pound player. But he has turned him into a good player instead of being a star player. Wenger would have done better with that 100mil pounds.

He waited and bought Merino, who has disappointed with his lack of combativeness. Look at how Ødegaard and Jesus do their best to defend at the front. But you don't see that in a slow-mo Merino.

Why oh why did we get a disinterested Sterling? Penny wise, pound foolish decision.

Over played Saka until he gets injured.

And our style of play is so boring when it fails to come off. Passes intercepted, and we struggle from a quick getaway by the opposition. I think a lot of goals against us were from the loss of a ball, and a quick attack on us. Case in point, we have slow midfielders unable to get back fast enough to help out the defence. Lesser teams have learnt to play this way against us. And they do get goals in this way.

Getting tired of Arteta's stubbornness. Buy a striker !

Although you would think the events of the last week would force us into the transfer market, I fully expect the same ponderous, impotent, approach and lack of success as we observed in our attacking play.

On Havertz: I feel very sorry for him. If he'd had normal luck (or at least converted chances at his usual rate) he would have had 2 or 3 goals in the last couple of games and that penalty would have gone in. At least he is getting himself into scoring positions, and adding to our build up play, and keeping at it, and (not a minor consideration) he isn't injured (touch wood).

It is still a shocking performance and he is never going to be a natural finisher, but we have no choice but to hope that he turns it around, given the unlikelihood of reinforcements. He was undoubtely not 100% fit in the Newcastle game, and the fact that so much responsibility for scoring goals has fallen on his shoulders is not his fault.

I think that is a fair point. However, in the first half Ødegaard was doing a good job getting the ball forward quickly. Our forwards were fluffing their lines (offside, not getting forward, taking safe options, not shooting quickly). Someone more dynamic and aggressive to complement Martinelli (who combined nicely with Lewis-Skelly) and Rice or Havertz in the right 8 position, might make a big difference.

From 17/18 until 22/23 season - so 6 seasons Salah played 50 games virtually every season, 300 games played, and if we discount a concussion and having corona virus (ie not injuries per se) Salah missed a total of 7 games with injury.
Simply playing players every game doesn’t cause injuries it’s different for every player and hugely down to luck as well

We’ve really lost dynamism to our play, one touch combinations and fast transitions. Pace and power trump most things in this league but we’ve gone for power and forgot the pace.

One big concern I have currently is we have some very big signings we’ve built our team around and there are question marks whether they can take us to the big titles. Some of it is the system some is the ability of the player. Cheating clubs would just go and buy more players and find one that’s better - easy fix, but our finances mean we have to stick with any player we make a decent outlay on.

Havertz is the obvious one, if you had Havertz as your second choice CF or attacking mid you’ve got a strong option.

Rice worries me, not in his ability at all I think he’s super but with how he’s played in our team, I don’t think he’s got enough to be a world class 6 at the base of midfield because he doesn’t receive and turn quickly enough - fine against smaller teams but not enough against a good high press. He suits being a box to box but lacks some of the finesse and creativity you want from your attacking mids. Rice isn’t the problem it’s the structure around him, play Rice as an 8 but then you need creativity from your wide men and full backs, we don’t have that.

Finally, Ødegaard. Far from the biggest problem of course but this post is about the players who are untouchable in our team so we have to find better balance to use their ability and compensate for their weaknesses. If Ødegaard was under Pep I think he’d play the Bernardo Silva role rather than the De Bruyne role. Connecting play from a bit deeper and making runs in to the box, de Bruyne is the killer - especially with his ball carrying and shots from distance.

https://x.com/now_arsenai/status/187857 ... -j6VVZXEoA

If Sesko is the guy we want then go get him now. Who in our entire squad can strike a ball this cleanly? 6ft 4”, technically very good and crucially has genuine pace. I think just having a striker who does a few classic No.9 striker things when we have the ball would be massive. So, proper movement, running the channels, attacking the 6 yard box etc

I don't think Havertz is that no.8 either.

Why are we wedded to playing a 6 and two 8s? Couldn't we find a way of making the best use of Rice's natural skillset?

And Sterling. He needs to play as an explosive player who creates chaos. That's rather at odds with how we play. Martinelli too.

10 day and 11 day breaks at the start of Feb and start of March. We somehow have to get through to there and try to get some injured players back and get some freshness back.

Glut of injuries just compound themselves, you have to play the same players so they get fatigued and don’t play their best in games and also increase the risk they get injured.

The last 2 years we’ve done ok with injuries but City have done even better, this season we’ve both had loads of injuries and Liverpool have the clean bill of health. Just such bad luck and timing

To reshape this squad I think we need a pair of classic attacking full backs, a deep lying 6 playmaker, a ball carrying 8, 2 new wingers with direct dribbling and goal threat and a classic 9.

Timber, White and Calafiori can all play CB so we’re quite well covered for Saliba and Gabriel. I want full backs with the technical and passing ability of midfielders, pace and an ability to hold with and add to the attack not just be ball recyclers. Players like Frimpong (Leverkusen) and Robinson (Fulham)

Deep 6 is such an important position for us. Get this right plus technical full backs and I think we’d be able to play more vertical. Our willingness or inability to play through a high press is worrying - we go long from Raya so often. Zubimendi is the fashionable choice but Baleba in the prem is raw but excellent.

Ball carrying 8, I really like Morgan Rodgers

Wide men, so many to choose from. Mbeumo and Gittens are two I really like.

Striker - Isak, Sesko, Gyökeres

I actually think if we had both Isak and Gyökeres and played a flat boring, quite defensive 4-4-2 you could just get the ball up to them and they’d win games for you on their own.

We sort of play that way without the elite ‘win the game on their own’ striker

The system isn't the problem. Think it's personnel, largely related to the injuries with had and less so related to recruitment.

We've survived injuries to all of our back 4 - the depth there is decent, however having White out has affected us as he's been such a dominant player in the last 2 seasons.

Ødegaard injury exposed our lack of options in attacking central midfield, I am somewhat perplexed at bringing in Merino while we already have Partey and Rice, I think that money would have been better invested in a more attacking player or a forward.

The main lack of personnel relates to the forward line - with everyone fit we only have Jesus/Havertz who can play as no9 and neither of them are classic typical no9s by any means.

Then we have Saka/Trossard/Martinelli/Sterling for the wide forward slots. Trossard is a decent squad player but not a wide threat with pace, more of a utility player who drops into no10 ish slots. Sterling was a useful but somewhat desperate signing due to the lack of depth, he's clearly not the player he was, sadly. Jesus' fitness is dodgy and he needs to be moved on as he's physically spent.

Realistically you need 6 quality forwards who can occupy those front 3 slots - we have no recognised striker who can stay fit and only two threatening pacey wide players (Saka, Martinelli).

It's clearly this personnel issue that's the issue, as even with injuries and 2/3 games/week, we're still often dominating games with high Xg, it's just we can't always convert the chances into goals, fits far far more with a personnel/squad issue rather than a playing system problem.

Look at other clubs forward lines squad wise:

Liverpool - Salah, Gakpo, Nunes, Diaz, Jota, Chiesa

City - Harland, Nunes, Savinho, Grealish, Silva

Chelsea - Jackson, Madueke, Neto, Felix, Palmer, Mudryk, Nkunku, Sancho

Villa - Dhuran, Watkins, Bailey, Ramsey, Philogene

United - Hojlund, Zirkzee, Rashford, Garnacho, Amad

Overall we are pretty weak when you put us up against the other challenging clubs and City are relatively weak depth wise this year compared to previous years - within this I think the fitness issues have to be part of the assessment, I'd far rather have 20-23 year olds with hunger and no injury problems in their history, players like Jesus are never going to play 40 games consistently and cannot be relied on.

Since Arteta became Arsenal manager the following teams have won the domestic trophies, 15 on offer
City 7 trophies
Liverpool 4 trophies
Man U 2 trophies
Arsenal 1 trophy
Leicester 1 trophy

Both City and Liverpool had built title winning and/or champions league winning sides when Arteta came in, he's pulled us up to their level, now we need the depth of squad and individual quality to take the next step. If you think that Pep and Klopp had two of the greatest goalscorers the prem has ever seen in Salah and Haaland and Arteta has gone toe to toe with Pep and beaten Klopp in the last 2 seasons without one. If they lost those two players to injury would they be as good and have won what they have - if we had a striker would we have walked off with the trophies? Impossible to tell but without that absolute elite forward player we're always going to struggle to win the biggest trophies because those players dig you out of games you don't deserve to win - seen it a million times with City and Liverpool.

A lot of good points.
I'd say our attacking options are still better than Villa and Man U - albeit I think some of Villa's players would start in our team.
Jesus was quite robust, his injury history in his career was good, then he got a bad knee injury playing for Brazil and has struggled since, this looks like it could be a really bad knee injury which also means we have no chance of moving him on in the summer - even if we were thinking of a £20m move and get his £250k a week wages off the book to free up some cash to sign a striker we're a bit scuppered there now.
We've built the squad from the back, and have relied so much on already having Saka and Martinelli at the club to not invest in the forward line. We must get some players in.
If Isak is beyond us now, and he is, then we need to go for someone like Sesko. Lineker suggested Liam Delap - there is a lot to like there and I don't mind that move, especially if Ipswich go down. Cunha as well I still think there is a lot to like, he can play multiple positions and offers creativity as well as goals

Good points. Jesus' fitness issues have indeed become obvious and we knew about them before the start of this season. Modern football is brutal, more players are washed by their late 20s than 20/30 years ago. Game faster and less rest periods.

Also another issue has been some of our top younger talents have been poached (Hutchison for example) and these young players in forward positions would have added to the squad.

https://www.le-grove.co.uk/p/arteta-red ... nd-suffers

Can't disagree with these thoughts relating to rotation/injuries.

At times, you have to sacrifice your relative chances of a win, because frankly the cups are not a priority relative to the PL/CL. League cup - I think Arteta has not used this as a rotation option as much as he should have, look how Wenger used it, genius in the way he rotated/blooded youngsters and one of the best things he did.

True .... I watched it again ; what amazed me Man U are such a monumentally p**ss poor side .... yet they still won

Feel sorry for Lewis Skelley he seems to have the most go forward in him ; yet he is always be the first to exit when subs are made