The best teams dropping out of the Champions League in to Europa are likely to be Roma, Dortmund and Shaktar. Hopefully Athletico buck their ideas up and catch Roma because we won't beat Simeone over 2 legs

Didn't manage to catch any of the match but following some text commentary and Wilshere seemed to be playing very well in the first half at least. Has anyone who watched the full 90 got a brief synopsis of player performances?

Jack was very good in the first half. Touch and passing was top notch. He visibly tired in the second half. Walcott did a Walcott - scored goals but did some stupid selfish things. Nelson and AMN were reasonably ok. Elneny was a mixed bag of good tempo and poor positioning. Giroud had some nice touches and held the ball up well. The back 3 and keeper were dodgy. Mustafi is ridiculously rash for a German international. I thought he was our worst player this evening. MOTM for me was Joe Willock. Not as influential as Jack in the first half, but was consistently good for the whole game. Barely put a foot wrong.

He's got serious problems mate it's obvious.

The remarkable thing about it is the duration its continued. Over 20 years on here it's almost inexplicable. The same thing for 20 years

Must admit, I didn't think Mustafi was even close to being our worst player. I'd say Holding was the worst of the back three. I also thought Nelson was the most impressive of the three young players who started (him, Willock and Maitland-Niles). I was quite pleased to see Nelson do well today, because I thought he was disappointing against Doncaster. As you imply, Wilshere started superbly but tired in the second half. I fully agree with your summary of Elneny. Glad to see Giroud score his hundredth goal but I didn't think did much else to write home about. Walcott was perhaps being selfish because he wanted to get his hat-trick.

All a matter of opinion though.

Congrats to OG for making it into the 100 club and achieving it a game quicker than RVP. What is even more impressive is that 48 goals came at away grounds. Top man.

Ancelloti is available from today.

Bernard/Dec - many thanks for the overview. Really interested in these 3 young players. Nelson needs to have some first team games in his best position, ditto maitland-niles. Willock struck me as being nowhere near physically ready, but I must admit that is just based on his physique and not much actual seeing him play.
I was surprised by maitland-niles turn of pace in the Doncaster game.

For me he falls into the category of being better than Wenger so given a choice of one or the other I would take him. But it would be with little enthusiasm as I don't really want him at Arsenal. Ancelotti has disappointed me, and practically everyone else who follow Bayern with any fondness. I suspect he's another manager who is now on the way down in his career following an excellent past. Perhaps I'm being harsh and the problems in Munich had more to do with him simply not being a good fit for Bayern as a club. Though if he is on his way down as a coach, I see Wenger as even further along in the same trajectory. Which is why if it had to be one of them I would take Ancelotti.

I hope whoever Bayern get can turn things round. But because of Ancelotti's influence I reckon this could be one of the seasons when they don't win the Bundesliga.

I actually thought of you Hodd during the match because of your connection with some of the players. Happy for you (and the club). I was really surprised Wenger brought so many young players. Great for them. Not an easy place to go to and perform. And they didn't disappoint. Particularly happy for Jack. I really, really want him to succeed with us.

Hoping we'll see more of them on the bench or starting for the other competitions we are in and also being used when starters are injured.

Didn't notice an estimate of how long Ageuro might be out, although I did skim read it. But if it's a long time, perhaps City will come back for Sanchez in January with a bigger offer than I was expecting them to make then? With Mendy probably out for the season, if Ageuro's injury is long-term then at present I see United as the more likely of the two Manchester clubs to win it. Shame as it would mean Mourinho keeping up his record of winning the title in his second season at every club he's managed.

I think he has won the CL with 2 different clubs and he EPL at least once. If he is still unemployed in January we may be able to chase him.

They have started their PR lines very early for next year.

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/after-20 ... bnpmn9viw8

200mil over 3 years - I am sorry but next year 200mil will not be enough to even bring he squad up to scratch.

He has done outstandingly well in the past. But so has Wenger. There comes a point when most managers go downhill as the game catches them up and leaves them behind, as we've seen very obviously with Wenger. Has the same downwards trajectory now started with Ancelotti? I'd say it's possible, although it began earlier with Wenger. I think I'd prefer an up and coming manager. As I said though, if it had to be one or the other at Arsenal and they were the only two options, I'd take Ancelotti. But not with an awful lot of enthusiasm.

All speculation because Wenger will be there until he cashes in his chips.

No doubt they would. But without getting a single penny for Sanchez and Özil, I bet we don't get four Lacazette type signings in different positions.

Coincidence that we revert to making a net transfer profit just after we drop down into the Europa league?.

This shows the level of ambition Kroenke has and Wenger is complicit.

This will be interesting.

http://news.arseblog.com/2017/09/kroenk ... vs-shares/

Hi Bernard. Aguero has a broken rib so I'm guessing they will renew interest in Sanchez. I'm 100% with you on the stupidity of not cashing in on £100m worth of talent for the sake of keeping one more year. They better not then complain of a lack of funds.

Wenger's not going anywhere, he's just signed a new contract. When he eventually does leave surely we'll go for someone younger. Right now Ancellotti would probably be an improvement on Wenger but it's never going to happen and he's undeniably been a great manager in the past. Also rumours that the Bayern hierarchy were concerned at Ancellotti's lack of tactics...we know the feeling only too well if that's true!

Jack has said wants to stay, that's great news.Ref Theo it's lucky he put that second goal away as Ollie was waiting for a tap in, goodness knows what he would have said to him. He had to let him take that penalty.
By the way 2 pens in 2 games, that's our lot for the rest of the season.

Good news for us on Aguero. Very good if we get to sell Sanchez.

Pogba also being said it's a serious hamstring injury:

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/ ... e-mourinho

"Paul Pogba's injury is long term, says Man Utd boss Jose Mourinho"



Mind you he could be sh1%%&ng us.

Well chaps if we manage to sell both find Özil's ignition switch and sort out our shaky defence and Spurs implode we could win the Prem for the next 5 years?

Or we could be relegated

AG borrowing bubblechris's computer. Do the math

More worrying than interesting, Kroenke is poison and full control means we might as well flush the club down the toilet.

I don't understand how Özil played 7 minutes on Monday but a week later he's ruled out? Also AW mentioned Kos' longterm achilles problem again which has put a doubt on his availability for Sunday. With BFG retiring in the summer and Kos unable to stay injury free for any length of time these days, we really need to get our cb recruitment right next year.

I think the club know Özil is signing for man united. Mourinho has always admired him and said he's the best no10 in the world. Something's up, seems odd.

Yeah let's grab another Silvestre. I am still damaged by that decision.

Or for different reasons Wellbeck who joined us in 2014 and has managed only 57 apps in the EPL and 13 goals. Before all the Wellbeck worshipers get on my back - in all 75 games with 20 goals. Might take a while for him to get to 100 goals.

Prediction for the Brighton game 2-0.

A least once Britex is in full scale the players won't be able to purchase any of those mucky foreign vehicles. Sale of Morris Minors will be way up.

http://www.thickaccent.com/2017/09/30/p ... -at-tesco/

Ranieri is at Nantes and doing decently. 6th place, 6 points off pace, 4-1-2 record. A great person, truly hope he succeeds beyond expectations.

Just from an investment value point of view, aren't Usmanov's shares a good investment? I don't know, just asking. Assuming with revenues going up, etc, its a good investment even if he has no control.

However, why have the shares if you can't control anything. Which of course is the purpose of him buying in the first place. I wonder why Usmanov is hanging on to them this long? That money could be invested elsewhere.

In any event, I hope he doesn't sell. Kroenke with even more power over the club than he has already is a sickening thought.

The board thought they were choosing the lesser of two evils. I still maintain, Usmanov was the better choice, simply because he likes the sport, understands it at least a much as any fan and wants to win things. Now look who we are stuck with? An owner that doesn't understand the sport. An owner who has another team (LA Rams) more important to him. An absentee owner who looks at the balance sheet instead of the back page for results.

If Welbeck hadn't missed so much playing time through injury, I think he'd be seen as a terrific signing. Not a prolific goalscorer, but his all round game and work rate deservedly makes him a regular starter when fit - indeed, a first choice player for the first team as the squad stands. He's a big miss when out. Certainly makes anyone saying they've been 'damaged' by signing him look a bit silly.

Interesting as Kroenke's made an approach to buy. Worrying if/when Usamanov takes the bait.
But then, why not. Usmanov's an outcast as far as the Board's concerned.

Usmanov's shares must be a good investment if Kroenke's made an approach.

Usmanov's shares must be a good investment if Kroenke's made an approach.

Hopefully there is another interested party that Usmanov can sell to if he wants out, I would understand if he did as he can't change anything at Arsenal and the share price may drop slightly if we regularly drop out of the CL.

Also if Usmanov goes to Everton then we have yet another club who can potentially overtake us, it wouldn't be hard with a richer, more ambitious owner, we are sleepwalking towards mediocrity and may well already be there from next season (minus Sanchez/Özil).

What goes on on the pitch at the moment is almost irrelevant in the bigger picture which is a sad state of affairs.

The squad always seems a couple of bits of bad luck away from a crisis. Wenger has been massively negligent in squad building for the last 8 years. Too often relying on fragile players and too often not having enough depth and quality in key positions. This year is no different, take right back or right wing back - it is Bellerin and that's it really.

The summer of 2018 is going to be a nightmare for us. It is why last summer was so important to replace wenger and give the new guy a chance to start rebuilding ahead of summer 2018. Look at all the players who leave for £0 in summer 2018, sanchez, Özil, per, santi, jack. Mustafi and bellerin want out. Kos achilles is a persistent worry (although doesn't seem to affect his performances when he does play). We also have quite a few reliable players who are the wrong side of 30, Čech, monreal, giroud. I don't think it is far fetched to say we could need 10 players to be introduced directly in to the first team next year. Which makes the £40m profit and only 2 signings this summer seem ridiculous. Does anyone trust wenger to make those changes? Even if he did make the changes would anyone trust him to put together the squad we need?

Spurs smash Huddersfield 4-0. Last year spurs squad wasn't tested properly. I'm still wishing they lose Kane for a long period to see how they cope but they are missing some players, Aurier, Rose, Wanyama, Dembele, Lamella all unavailable for them today. Impressive.

I look at spurs signing players and improving them, look at Davies and Trippier - picked up from weak teams at Swansea and Burnley for modest prices and their improvement levels have gone through the roof. At Arsenal players sign and rarely improve, quite a few go backwards.

If a manager just made us as good as the sum of our parts - let alone better than the sum of our parts we'd be miles better than we are.

The planets are aligning for the scum. New stadium to come. Their best squad since before my time as a fan at least ('93?).
I think their biggest achilles heel is the the strong possibility that when a major job comes up their manager may take it. He is their Wenger (the early years at least).
Kane a close second, but they can replace him. Hard to replace that manager. It may seem like it but it may be difficult.

Well ...