I think there are important differences between Saliba and Fofana. There is the off field issue of Saliba's mother recently passing away (I think I read), but also playing for Leicester is different to playing for Arsenal. One is clearly under more scrutiny for any mistake made, also Leicester play a much deeper defence which is much easier for a defender to come in and 'just' defend. Arsenal play a higher line, expecting their defenders to go 1 v 1 against attackers and be the starting point of attacks.
I agree it would have been nice to see Saliba and I think it is a missed opportunity to not have him in the Europa squad especially with the extra subs we can name and bring on and the easier games we face in the group stage. Saliba could have started 4 of these games pretty comfortably

I'm still right behind Arteta.
He is the man for us and I love how much more solid we are.
But he has to find a way to make us more pacy and creative in attack.
He has to start playing Aubameyang through the middle and have Saka on one wing and Pépé/Willian on the other.
The slow methodical build up is not doing it for me
Attack with pace and not be so cautious.
Surely this is not how Arteta wants to play having being around Pep for years.
Utd haven't won a league game at home in 5 attempts I think. I think we all worry that that sequence will come to an end on sunday.
Teams always seem to end their negative runs against us and I fear the worst to be honest.
Then Villa Wolves Leeds and Spurs follow after that. Very difficult run of games where it's hard to see where wins are coming from if we play like we did in the 2nd half v leicester.
I hope Arteta has some ideas and answers how we move forward attacking wise.

Morning Rich.
For sure he could have played in the Europa league games.
I really hope Arteta is putting his arms round him and telling him how much he believes in him.
The boy is a talent.

That's a good read, Roastie - balanced and objective as is allowed by NYT's position of detachment.

Neither club nor player come out of it particularly well.

Next summer we can get rid of Özil, Sokratis, Luiz, Mustafi but we won't get any transfer fees in for any of them. I worry how quickly our rebuilding project can work when finances are tight, and even tighter due to no revenue from fans in the stadium, and our inability to generate any fees from our players.
Putting aside the January window, next summer the team will likely need another back-up GK (I think we might go back for Raya), a right-sided CB, possibly 2 central midfielders (because Ceballos will be off) and at least 1 striker.
Other than the 4 mentioned above we have a glut of players still who are simply not good enough to get us in to the top 4, chambers, holding, Cédric, elneny, xhaka, willock, nketiah, nelson, lacazette. That may seem harsh on some of those who haven't played much but there is a reason for that, and there are others in that list who have been with us a long time but we've never got in the top 4 with them in the team. There are still question marks on whether Pépé and Willian can turn us in to a top 4 team.

Once again timing has been the absolute enemy of Arsenal - 3 examples I can think of.
1) We decide to build the new stadium relatively safe in the knowledge we're well established top 2 team with not much threat from below. Then Chelsea get all their money, hoover up transfer targets and shove us down. I'm not saying we couldn't have done better - just that the timing was awful for us
2) We get through the lean years and now have a stadium that is pulling in huge amounts of money, more than all but a handful of clubs in europe. TV money goes bananas and suddenly match day money is a drop in the ocean compared to what the TV money brings in, so the difference between having a 60,000 stadium and a 40,000 stadium is nothing
3) Arsenal need a total rebuild, lots of players need to leave and lots need to come in. Finances are tight but if we can be smart we can negotiate a turnaround in the team. A global pandemic hits when we're at our lowest, restricts our finances even further and strangles the market so much that we can't achieve anything like the business we wanted to achieve. The global pandemic was perfect for those clubs with a settled squad and strangely Chelsea who had been forced to hoard their money the previous season due to a transfer ban, now they were super rich even in comparison to very rich clubs who needed to tighten the belt.

Mike Dean is the ref for our game vs Man U. The ref who loves to give a penalty and the team who can't stop being given them.

36 pens for Man U vs 9 for us since Solskjaer took over. I get that their style may lead to more pens (although there were also stats about touches in the box per pen and Man U were way out in front on that) but Man U just always get every shout they have, there's never one not given if they go down in the box - all the more frustrating when you see so many of our claims turned down.

I saw an article looking at the Son+Kane partnership because they have now assisted+scored asa duo 29 times, only behind Drogba/Lampard. The article seriously asked 'where do they rank in the all time prem duos, are they the best ever?' I suppose it would be asking too much for these articles on Spurs to mention the need to actually win something to be regarded at the top of these sorts of lists.

Tempting fate there Rich. In this season where it looks to be wide open they could well do it, if the above two stay fit. But for a ludicrous VAR decision against Newcastle and an insane comeback from West Ham they'd be two points clear at the top now. I'm sorry to say they look in much better shape than we do right now.

Hopefully that's jinxed them

Yorke/Cole

Henry/Bergkamp or Pires

Heskey/Owens wasn't too bad either

Hi Goonie,
Cohesion as a team is necessary. But, must allow for adjustments occasionally if it means getting ahead. Ah, the Tinkerman, what a league win that was.

[quote="AmericanGooner"][quote="Zed"]
We are down to 11th. Spurs one point off top 4 now.[/quote]

C'mon Zed, grow a pair, all of you panicking....joking dude...its 6 games in. We aren't going tot stay 11th. We had a fairly rough first 6 matches. We are much better than we were under Emery. Had Emery stayed the manager, likely no FA Cup, we'd be lucky to get a point or two from the games so far.

We will move up, Villa will move down. Sperz will hover near their present place. City are 13th. Man Utd are 15th. Does anyone think either of those sides will stay there.

Don't worry son. I 'guarantee' we'll move up. [/quote]
AG,
There isn't a single side in the PL no matter where they are in the table once the season starts, that doesn't strive to reach top 4, let alone avoid relegation. We're 11th, but that could change obviously by Nov 1 for both sides. The other being 15th. Same applies to Spurs, etc. Table shuffles.

They certainly do, but they've also been lucky in some games. A ludicrous red card v Man U handed them the win there and Southampton's baffling high line tactics when Saints were well on top in that game. They've also had 3 or so extra games from the Europa qualfiers to get up to speed and have ahead start on match fitness on the rest.
Spurs got very lucky with the covid, Son and Kane were both ruled out for the season last year, covid hit, halted football for 3 months and they're both back to finish the season. Those two are very good but beyond that Spurs are average, City and Liverpool have far more in the tank.

If we do it then we need to accept that they will all be cherry picked by bigger sides in a few years and we need to ensure we get huge money for them. I don't think it is necessary to go down a full project youth mode. But a quick look at the business model of Dortmund or even Leicester shows that good recruitment or young talent and selling at the right time can push a team on - we've got more money to invest than either of those so we could do what they do with an extra level added on top.
We've got to get some players who are sellable assets first, which will take a while because we are probably faced with losing most players we don't want for free or very low fees, we need to stop handing massive contracts to these players, make them earn it.

Another thing to take from the Leicester game. Leicester finished the game with 5 players on yellow cards. The entire back 3 and their central mid. 3 of them played virtually the whole 2nd half on a yellow, yet it was Bellerin who was closest to getting a red diving in at a player who made him commit himself to a tackle (and he probably should have gone) At any point did we run at them to make them think twice about making a tackle? Did we 'do a Jose' and act like a bunch of **** with a bit of gamesmanship targeting those players and putting pressure on the ref to think about giving 2nd yellow cards?

Bendtner thinking that maybe he could have done better

https://www.skysports.com/share/12112295

Shame really. I had high hopes for him when he was emerging.

Carling Cup, 2008 a 5-1 loss at WHL to Spurs. Won't forget that scrap Bendtner and Adebayor got into then.

Remember the game but don’t really recall their scrap.

You beat me to it Tom. American Gooner, if you see this message: just because the Invincibles' record is safe, don't pack away the rubber sheets for another year just yet. There's an ever greater potential calamity that should be weighing on our bladders in the wee hours (if you'll excuse the pun): the prospect of Spurs actually winning something more significant than the Sun International Challenge Trophy this season.

I'm far less sanguine that Rich that there rest of their team is too mediocre for Spurs to be troublesome this year.

I think it came about because when Adebyoar came on as a sub at maybe 4-0 down he said to Bendtner "I'm only on because you're sh*t"

Dominik Szoboszlai has scored again for Salzberg. He's the sort of profile of attacking player we should be looking at. There were some links in the summer. Only 20, playing for a slightly unfashionable club who are willing sellers of their players.

This pushing and shoving that started at the far post. Also led to Bendtner'rs bloody nose possibly a head butt from Ade.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.thegua ... ry.arsenal

Hi Decaf and tomc. I agree with both of you. To expand on my thoughts, with Liverpool missing van Dijk for the season (assuming he does) and Manchester City not looking great (I’m hoping the game is overtaking Guardiola as I still think managers have their peak years like players), I think it could be another surprise title winners season, like the season Leicester won it.

I think Tottenham are definitely one of the possible winners, as we are despite the moans about players here. The North London clubs aren’t the only possibilities by the way. There are others.

But to coin a phrase, I think it might be ‘up for grabs’.

Reading this morning that Upamecano has a £38m buy out clause. I fear that even if we could pay that others also will and he’s not coming here. From what I’ve seen he is one of the stand out young Cb in the world and is really worth double that in comparison to other transfer fees. I hope he goes to Barca, Bayern and Madrid as I’d hate one of the other prem clubs to snap him up

I'd love to have him with Saliba and Gabriel in a back 3 but it won't happen. He'll end up at a big club.

Greeting Bernard.
I've very glad that you are penciling us in as contenders. I'm also not ruling us out, although I think that Spurs look the more likely dark horses.

I take a different view to others here regarding Arteta's tinkering and our current indifferent form. In my view, it is entirely understandable. He really does need to be given the freedom and space to try to figure things out. Someone compared him with Ranieri 'the tinkerman'. This is interesting, considering what Ranieri subsequently achieved and how he did it. I'm confident Arteta will start picking a more settled side once he's figured out what that is. So I'm giving him another season of fairly uncritical support.

We're a big club.

Of course we are. To claim we’re not is just silly.

Couldn't agree more. Arteta has been in the job less than a year. And won a trophy in that time. He's probably got 3 or 4 players in his current first choice 11 who he inherited and doesn't have a choice but to play right now, but who may well be gone next season. He has to be given time.

Me too he has shown he's a serious coach and he needs time. Regarding the line up changes, the fixture list is even more crowded this season and rotation is inevitable and necessary. Hope to see Nelson, Smith-Rowe (is he fit?), Runarsson, Saliba and possibly Balogun feature tomorrow against Dundalk.

Smith-Rowe (if as you say he's fit) and Balogun are two that we definitely need to have a look at. They can offer us something different.

Martinelli is due to be in full training by the end of December. Hopefully he’s retained his pace. We could really use that threat.

Unless he is one of those players who aren't the same after a big injury, I have a gut feeling Martinelli is going to be HUGE. The little I've seen of him so far suggests he's got all the tools to be a top striker. He times his runs well, he runs off the last defender well. He's a decent finisher. Decent pace.

Hi bromley. I watched a programme called Sportscene. It’s a BBC programme of the Scottish Premier League highlights. A sort of BBC Scotland equivalent of the English BBC’s MOTD. I only bothered watching the highlights of the two matches featuring Rangers and Celtic last weekend. One of the games had a Balogun in one of the opposition teams, who were Livingston and Aberdeen. I assume it’s a different one, or has our Balogun gone to a Scottish club on loan?

I dont think so Bernard, he's listed in our Europa squad.

Andy Green, what's really going on in "our" city?

There's a Leon Balogun playing for Rangers, Bern. Big defender. Wiki says he's German.

Hold on....German.....plays for Rangers? Must be on your radar.

Thanks DHD. Was it Rangers? Thought it was the opposition facing either them or Celtic.

Man U won 5-0 tonight. You just can't play a high line, or play in to their trap. Man U score a lot from a turnover and a single pass through to a quick striker. They rarely pick the lock in close. Man U are setting up to cede possession even at home to underdog teams now. We can't fall in to the trap at the weekend. Give their counter attack and pace the respect it deserves, keep the defence deep and disciplined. If we can also press their back line none of them are what describe as comfortable on the ball. Man U are very up and down, but the times they've been down v Palace and Spurs - and to some extent Brighton, they've been caught at their own game - taking the game on too much and getting done with pace behind. I think we need to go far more direct, have runners off the shoulder - not worry if we get caught offside a few times, keep chipping balls over the top for willing runners.

While I think the league has been looking stronger as a collective, top to bottom, we are playing the clubs likely to be top 4 fairly early. Losses are bad result in our present state playing clubs with a more established XI is going to yield bad results at times.

Let's see how we progress. I'm still fairly optimistic although this team might kill that feeling yet. But for now, I think we'll be okay.

The Man Utd result is very surprising but they can look good one minute and then go back to looking rudderless.