I rate Potter quite high. His teams have punched above their weight and played attacking technical football with a high degree of tactical nuance. The question is whether Chelsea will give him the length of time Arteta has had - and whether Potter is having much say in the recruitment.

It is interesting to see so many managers now using the loyalty Arteta has been shown as a message to the media and their bosses. Just in the last week I've seen Moyes and Lampard overly praise Arteta and Arsenal for their own agenda of trying to stay in a job when they're under pressure. There is obviously the small factor that you have to be a talented manager as well! (which to be fair I do have a lot of time for Moyes and West Ham should stick by him - Lampard not so much)

Mudryk is looking like a time-consuming wild goose chase. He may want to join us but is we are £20m+ apart on valuations its hard to see a compromise. They feel he's every bit as good as Anthony and deserves to be valued the same, we feel that's an absurd valuation for an unproven player from the Ukrainian league. I can see both points of view and Chelsea's supposed interest is probably not helping to bring down the price.

Joao Felix feels like a very expensive gamble but the Newcastle game showed our lack of attacking options. It makes no sense financially unless we win the league especially if there is no buy option.

This is the problem with clubs with virtually infinite resources rocking up and paying way over the odds for average players. It massively distorts the market and I don't blame Shaktar for wanting Anthony money if they think (as would be quite fair) than Mudryk is better than Anthony.

A player is only worth what a club are willing to buy him for, so really we have to set a limit and then walk away. If Chelsea meet the value then the player needs to decide whether he wants to go to Chelsea in 10th with little likelihood of CL football next year, or dig his heels in for Arsenal the club he's clearly set his heart on. Then Shaktar have to decide if they go with our lower bid, because they can't force the player to move to Chelsea, with the knowledge that might be the best they can do in this or another window.

We need to put some kind of timescale on it. I saw Ornstein mention we're still keen on Felix and getting him in may put the pressure back on Shaktar in the Mudryk deal, we've also got Emile Smith Rowe coming back who can cover every position Mudryk plays in.

Either way, it needs to be as full a reserve team as we can at Oxford - we play 2 days later than Spurs in the FA Cup - of course we've been given the Monday night in front of the cameras game as those with the power will be desperate for an upset.

Feels like a goose chase doesn’t it. They seem intent on an auction and we never win these.

Surely just signing felix outright permanently makes more sense. His daft fee hasn’t helped him but he’s a good player and the type that Arteta could revitalise like Jesus

The club made a massive mistake not signing a wide man in the summer. You need to strengthen at moments of strength

Also the club needs to cut its losses on some of the players who frequent our subs bench who frankly can’t be trusted to play 15 minutes againest Newcastle

I'd be slightly concerned at the lack of action in the transfer market. As you say boosting the squad when we are ahead increases our chances of winning the title and if that doesn't happen finishing top 4. A couple of injuries and we could struggle. We are not even half way through the season and the EUROPA and FA cups in the mix to come.

I can only go by youtube videos but I like the look of Mudryk. My spiderman senses say he'll be good. It will be a shame if we can't get him.

On a related note, its seeming like if you want to win the league, fairly consistently, especially the bigger leagues and win the CL you will need an uber rich sugar daddy. It's a matter of when not if City wins the CL. They have the deepest of pockets. Newcastle will be the same within a decade at worst.

We had Raphinha as the No.1 wide man target in the summer and bid somewhere in the region of £50-60m for him. Of course we could say where were the 2nd, 3rd, 4th targets to ensure we got someone in, perhaps all those players had long contracts and sky high prices from their clubs also.

It is difficult, do you sign someone, anyone - or do you stick to the plan that has bought you a long way in a short space of time by walking away from bad deals and not accepting 2nd best?

Here are the lists of all the top right and left wingers who moved clubs in the summer. Who on there should Arsenal have signed at the price they moved for?
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/transfe ... se=&leihe=
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/transfe ... se=&leihe=

RIP Gianluca Vialli.

Always came across as a class act.

Don't Athletico want over £100m for him though?

He hasn't set the world alight in La Liga, albeit playing for a very defensively orientated side. He's talented no doubt but he's not the biggest or strongest. Can he cope with the physicality and frenetic pace of the PL, especially as we would need him to hit the ground running.

I hope we have a plan B. I would like to get a starter and someone for the bench. Someone like that Dutch beanpole who came on and scored two against Argentina.

We’re being charged for failing to control our players v Newcastle

Honestly that’s *%^@*** scandalous and an absolute disgrace

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footb ... astle.html

Newcastle had its bench interfering with play.

That is now Arsenal, Man U and Spurs who have all been charged for failing to control their players in matches against Newcastle this season. The punishment is fair enough, we can't have players crowd a referee in the manner that happened, but it must be consistent - not just for the high profile teams in high profile televised games. I cant believe every instance of crowding the ref has been dealt with this way.

It would be good to see the FA/Premier League put some effort in to correcting the things that lead to such sanctions - of course the clubs need to control their players as well - but perhaps the authorities should look at why these things happen and decide whether the actions were unjustified or maybe start taking things like time wasting and terrible var reviews seriously.

I've read so many times this week that 'time wasting is part of the game'.....well tackles from behind were part of the game once and people didn't like it as it was incredibly dangerous, now those tackles are suitably punished and quite rare.
The proper added time at the world cup saw the ball in play on average for 6-8 minutes more than your average prem match.

https://twitter.com/afcDW/status/1611399927141400576
Someone put this video up where just as many Newcastle players are surrounding the ref in the incident for the penalty call. So it seems it is ok to surround the ref to harass him to stick with his original decision but not to harass him to try to change his mind? .....I'm being facetious....

Hi Rich, yeah I think that’s fair. Obviously I want Chelsea to be a such a circus, actual circuses marvel at the chaos going on there. But from a football point of view I’m curious if Potter can apply his Brighton philosophy to a bigger club. In theory if you - intelligently- pumped £500M over two windows into Brighton, who were envied by most in the premier league, what could you achieve?

But Chelsea aren’t Brighton and I think, and hope, that it’ll just take too long. I think the owners are prepared to be patient, but because they’re novices at this, the new players are coming in too fast, and as you say it seems as if it’s being done over Potters head, I think it’ll be a bit dysfunctional for a while and it’ll take more like 5 years to really settle and I don’t think potter has that much time.

Ffs. That’s infuriating.

Just pay up ignore it and move on. How much is the fine? Throw the money down and walk away.

Based on this season's form, we have to consider ourselves of having a decent chance of winning the FA Cup.

Runner up and an FA Cup would be a fantastic season. If Chelsea knocks out City (not likely but they are very capable of it), it leaves the door open to us. We have at least an even chance or better against everyone else. A few lucky draws and who knows.

Seeing the late penalty given to Man U tonight reminds me that is the exact sort of penalty I’ve seen not given to us countless times. For us it’s written off as a coming together, or our player going down easily. There was absolutely no doubt for the ref or var on that one tonight.

Honestly I do wonder if the best thing for us would be to chuck out a load of kids for the game and exit the competition as soon as possible.

I agree. No first eleven should be selected or in the squad. If we can’t win the tie with a team of seconds then we have a lot of squad work to do.

No surprise 22 yr old Mudryk can't make up his mind.

Strongly disagree - we should never deliberately undermine the great relationship between the FA Cup and Arsenal.

I would in every other season agree with you. But I think we have an outside chance of the title. We have to have a crack with that as priority because knowing we should get a CL spot if we don’t win. If we were to have any chance with our thin squad I think we need us to continue with good results but for City to get bogged down in FACup and CL run knowing they really want to win a CL.

The best relationship having won it the most times. Also, haven't we been able to do manage a few doubles?

We can see it coming. The league and footballing culture in the UK is setting up Kane to be the greatest player in the EPL ever.

They tried it with Shearer (and I like Shearer) but Henry (and later Aguero) did too much. Cristiano would likely have replaced Henry as the consensus best had he stayed I'm guessing. But and this is going to be a lot of supposition related to politics and Brexit but I think culturally (and I'm guessing) England has wanted an Englishman to represent the league's best. Maybe I'm assuming too much.

Either way, it appears we are being groomed over time to accept Kane as the greatest EPL player ever. It feels that way. I'm biased. I don't care either way but he's a Tottenham player and I don't want to see a Tottenham player replace Henry in the eyes of the sports media and punditry.

It will get laughed off by his lack of trophies, which is zero. You simply can’t be in any type of greatest ever conversation if you’ve never won anything

So this was Liverpool’s players the day before our game vs Newcastle which we received an FA charge for failing to control our players due to surrounding the referee.

I think it’s clear to me that these FA charges get handed out to deflect away from a poor refereeing performance, and not just any referee performance, one that was very high profile and played out in the media a lot. I doubt there would be such a charge or the energy around it if this was a 0-0 between say Leicester and Villa.

By most Arsenal and Chelsea fans yes, but are you so sure the whole national fanbase will? I'm not in England obviously so you have a better pulse on the national sentiment. I can only go by what the media has been doing over time.

Growing up Americans watch football every 4 years. I don't recall ever seeing the USSR. I'm sure they were in it but I don't recall them in it or doing well. According to the internet, 1966 was their best finish (4th).

With as much effort they put into the Olympics and doing very well, I wonder why that effort didn't translate into better football teams? Was it because Europe and the South American giants were just too good? But the rest of the world was very good at the various Olympic events as well?

Precisely. If we could beat united this month and take a point or better off city then for the first time in years we could have a genuine shot at a league title. We will definitely fall apart of we progress deeply into those 2 cup competitions. Just look what 2 injuries to Emile Smith Rowe and jesus have done to our squad. We can even give people a breather

Our subs bench for the last invincibles season game againest Leicester was Reyes, Edu, parlour stack and keown. That’s what’s required to win a title and compete in multiple competitions and we don’t have that.

Kane is a great player who I admire tremendously, but he is not in the same bracket as Henry.

Given Manures run I can well see them beating us.

Even with their current form I would disappointed if we can’t turn them over. We are simply a better team right now

Mikels comments in the press conference seem to suggest they are fed up with shakhtar and won’t offer more money. I think that one is properly cooked now

Dry balls Old Coot ....... on that theme , guess this would be the most most appropriate record offering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGNlIyE ... =ricbenton

NZ was such an arse backwards naive country back in 1961 [ hasn't changed much ] that this record was seen as an insult to Christianity and was banned .


Hello EDIT maybe we weren't so backward just checked , the BBC banned it as well

Greetings Soc .....let's not get too down , newspapers crank out a whole heap of sh&&%%#t on most days with page fillers . Their merit really is only for the crossword puzzles , Sudoku . starting a fire , fish and chip wrapper or emergency use in a long drop toilet .

Kroenke has a net worth of 12.9 billion while Boehly has just over 5 so we have the advantage of deeper pockets .

Agreed, the only comparable thing between them is the rate of goals. Comparing Henry and Kane is a bit like comparing Messi and Ronaldo. One is much more than a goal scorer, he’s an all round tremendous footballer and still managed to have a better goals to games ratio than the other.
I’d go as far as to say Luis Suarez was a better footballer than Kane and if Suarez had spent all his peak years in the Prem he’d have a better goals to game ratio than Kane.
I suspect in England Kane would be well liked by supporters of teams outside the prem, but ultimately any fan with even a shred of credibility wouldn’t have Kane as the greatest prem player simply because of his lack of trophies. Trophies aren’t the only factor but it’s a big one. Rooney is well above Kane for me for example

.
I mean how much fun can you have in retirement ,

Yesterday went to give my garden a bit of water . I've got this 44 gallon plastic barrel full of rainwater with comfrey , horse manure etc mixed in to create a liquid fertiliser .

As I approach I disturb this vast cloud of freshly hatched mosquitoes , check it out , there are millions of mosquito lavae , plus a few rat tailed maggots
all wriggling around coming to the surface to breathe .

Happily frolicking here there and everywhere , they are having a great time

We'll soon sort that , ... tra la la dee diddly dee dee ..... tuneless whistle .

Add quarter litre of used motor oil , it forms a film across the surface .

There get your little b**&#d breathing tube thru that barrier , you little sh*ts .

Oh the delight watching their frenzied fruitless attempts to get oxygen , ten minutes later not a living soul in sight .

I don’t want to disturb a brilliant mind at work but the liquid fertiliser is now contaminated and will be almost impossible to get rid of without causing damage somewhere.

Kane can't lace Henry's shoes. My point is I notice segments of the British sports media TRYING to groom us in that direction (Kane as uber god of the EPL). Shearer is arguably and usually touted as the greatest British player in the EPL. How many trophies has he won? But I wouldn't argue against him being the best. Trophies aren't brought up when discussing Shearer and the EPL.

At the very least some in the media are trying to have him replace Shearer at the very least. His international goals are always being mentioned (despite a lot of them being PKs). And I agree Rooney is far better.

But the gist of my post is the media are grooming us to make him greater than he actually is and by great I mean lauding him higher than players who are better at a minimum and best at the criminally most.

Or the media isn't? At least some of them.

...and I think its even silly discussing comparisons between Henry and Kane. But just to add one more view, Henry was on a team with goal scorers, great scorers: Bergkamp, Pires, Ljundberg, even Wiltord possibly.

Other than Son, Kane is pretty much their only go to option.