Yes this is correct signing a reserve goalkeeper is our priority right now

Someone in the coaching staff knows him from working with him before. I would suggest that's a large slice of why we brought him in as he did have a terrible last season in french ligue 2 I believe.It has been noted that he looks like an outfield player with the ball at his feet, so he fits the style in that regard. The problem is he's often looked like a outfield player when somebody shoots at his goal.

Talking about back up keepers, Martinez was faultless today for Villa, pulling off some great saves as they stole a 1-0 after going down to 10 men. They didn't really play it out form the back much from what I saw.

The thing that stuck out for me was Dean smith was managing his 500th game as a manager, what a contrast to Arteta, it's coming good for them this season, but they stayed up on literally results on the last day, and if you remember the terrible goal line cock up, with the goal that was clearly over but not given, they would have gone down.

I cannot stress enough how important I feel it is to have some patience, lots of it in fact, with Arteta. The thing that concerns me most is still the rest of the guys "in charge" from Owner, and executive and Edu to make the right decisions to support Arteta adequately. Where's the experience and knowledge to offset his greenness? Who's assistant manager now?

Guendouzi has just smacked a beauty into the top corner for Hertha Berlin.

See Dortmund lost 1-5 at home to Stuttgart. At the moment it looks like Leipzig will be Bayern’s main challenger this season. Leipzig are currently one point clear at the top having played a game more than Bayern. Therefore, Bayern will have to win away tonight at Hertha’s local rivals, Union Berlin, to go back top.

Totally agree, people need to remember he’s only managed 17 games in the league for us so far and is dealing with numerous problems brought on by the previous 2 regimes not to mention his only transfer window was in the middle of a global pandemic meaning he was unable to sell any players for cash due to economic uncertainty.

Do I expect our fans to give him a break ? Not a chance as they micro analyse any mistake or not Leno, Willian or Aubameyang produce and have gone from praising his sideline encouragement to deriding it.

Hardly the world’s most reliable source, but the Mirror are saying Saliba has no future at Arsenal while Arteta remains as manager. Sounds like the Mirror are jumping to conclusions but the whole situation with Saliba does seem odd. Whatever the reason, it appears he has been frozen out the first team.

Is he simply not suited to the English game? Has he found it impossible to settle in London or at Arsenal? Has the death of his mother had a catastrophic impact on his mental well being? Sure, it is very sad when your mother (and father) dies. But it is something the huge majority of people (those who die young being the obvious exceptions) has to show the emotional strength to get through.

Or, the big question, is he simply not as good a player as the club thought he was when spending £27m to get him?

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... dium=email

Bayern currently one down 10 minutes into the second half in case you're not following it Bernard.
Although my posting this almost guarantees they will equalise soon and go on to win.

Bayern have equalised. We need another post from you to get a late winner. (Imagine a smiley here).

EDIT: Too late for the winner, it finished 1-1. Good effort though bromley. At least you did your bit!

Made a mistake about having to win to go top. After drawing Bayern go top on goal difference.

I had a layover in London the past couple days. Had there been no pandemic, I'd have loved to have seen a game, ours or anyone else's.
Love the Harry Potter store at Heathrow. Had a nice long chat with one of the workers. She's a Tottenham fan. Joked about doubling the prices for me. Dealing with this pandemic made me realize how precious it is to be able to see live matches and I should have made more of an effort.
Hopefully, with the cure, etc, I'll reverse that.

Did you just say you made a mistake?

Nice story but not quite true. He got lucky early on as he spilled one. Might have been a different story if they had conceded then.

Such is the life of a keeper.

Eurosport also reporting the news that Saliba has no future under Arteta.
I will be absolutely gutted if this is true and will be furious with Arteta if he gets rid of a guy we signed for 29 million and he hasn't even given a chance to. How come fofana ,Saliba's partner at StEtienne be flourishing at Leicester yet saliba is cast aside to the under 23s.
I know ligue 1 is not up to the premier league standards but it's still a good league.
All this b%*&s%*^ about him improving young players yet he isnt giving time to saliba and helping him to flourish.
I hope this is not true.
I feel a bit uneasy about Arteta and his man management skills. Seems once he is off you there is no going back.

Well he made a good save and then immediately dived on it. It’s not like he parried it into danger. He had a great game.

I share your unease over Saliba tbh. We made this huge investment and had to be so patient and now this mystery of why he seems to be almost being forced out. If it’s football reasons then it seems really bizarre, not even Europa? If he’s going to make mistakes I’d rather see him make them and learn from them than just watch Mustafi make them anyway.

I still believe the club's failure to allow Saliba to play in the French Cup Final is the key issue causing the current lock-out. He might have confided his unhappiness about it to someone, and it reached the ears of Arteta. I always felt the club should have allowed him his day of glory.

Yes, when it happens I always have. My mistakes are so rare you obviously haven’t noticed. Understandable for you to miss it, I guess.

Each game now is pivotal if it doesn't result in a win. It's been a few games. Wins in Europe don't seem to translate to wins in the league. Maybe its so many different players who aren't involve in a league game. If you are playing league games but not playing European games, you may be happy we beat some continental outfit but if you are not on the pitch and part of it, its difficult to derive something to bring into a league game.

I still maintain our primary affliction is something intangible. We have a decent team on paper. Yes, tactics and players being played out of position or shouldn't be starting (Aubameyang on the wing, Xhaka starting possibly, etc.) is a factor. We can debate to what degree, but one thing that has been consistent from Wenger to Arteta is a consistent lack of belief, etc that has permeated this side.

All that said, I'm very happy for West Ham. Currently 5th. No one saw that coming after a dozen games or so. Also, Leicester consistently since their title been thereabouts in the top 6. I assume they have a great structure within. They perform no matter who is manager.

Hi david,

I agree, I share the same unease at his treatment of some players. It appears to be one rule for some but not the others.

When he first arrived I liked his self assurance and confidence, he seemed to be a man on a mission who knew where he wanted to be and how to get there.

A year on I am not sure if he's that or just an arrogant wanker who's out of his depth but too stubborn to admit it.

I think we will know one way or the other pretty soon because if he is the latter he will eventually lose the dressing room.

Don’t want to intrude but if you have a partner, what do they say about your frequency of mistakes. Although I believe I am always right, snd like you only rarely make mistakes; my wife has another take on it.

There are many things I don’t really get involved with but regarding the issues where I have the main responsibility, I explain my opinions to her.

I’ve never seen Saliba kick a ball so apart from what I’ve read I don’t have any real idea how good, bad or indifferent he really is. The club paid a lot of money for a kid of that age, so somebody at Arsenal clearly thought he was one hell of a prospect. Whether that someone was Sanllehi, Edu, Emery or whoever, I don’t know? But I can’t help having suspicions, considering how he’s apparently freezing Saliba out, that Arteta disagrees with the person that rated him as a prospect.

What concerns me just as much, or even more so considering that I haven’t seen Saliba play, is the way Arteta has decided to get rid of Guendouzi. I’ve seen enough of him to realise what a terrific prospect he is, however immaturely he may have behaved at Brighton last season. I simply don’t think the club can afford to lose a young player of that potential and nor do I believe he’s had a personality transplant at Berlin Hospital, the way people are speaking so highly of him at Hertha.

So in short socrates I’m yet to be convinced you’re wrong about Arteta. Sure, everyone makes mistakes but I feel he is making a big one over Guendouzi and might, or might not, be making another over Saliba.

If Wenger or George had felt that a 19 year old wasn’t ready for the Arsenal first team nobody would have batted an eyelid. Arteta said the player has come on leaps and bounds but had suffered some personal issues. Not sure why our fans feel the need to call out the new manager about every little thing as that seems a logical explanation.

An Arsenal mate of mine called me this week to chat and said he thought it was a foregone conclusion Arteta will get sacked. I agreed, you have this twitter generation type self created narratives people are now pushing no matter how silly paired with Arsenal’s organisational failure and massive rate of attrition at board level which makes his job impossible. There’s probably a manager in there but I doubt we will see it.

If Jay Bothroyd had thrown his shirt at Don Howe and Liam Brady and got kicked out the club in these times our fans would be calling for Wenger to be sacked. The state of people

I get what you’re saying TG, and clearly I’m for giving Arteta a least another 18 months minimum, but the questions over Saliba in particular are quite clear. It’s not even first team football, it’s any involvement with the team at all. I personally would love to see more of Nelson but he’s not getting the chances in the premiership. Saliba isn’t even in any squads. He was already playing first team football with glowing reports all over Europe. It does raise questions that necessitate fuller answers because the expectation was clearly that he’d be involved in at least some way.

If you read the quotes from Saliba they aren’t understanding of the situation they are despondent “I don’t feel like I’m part of Arsenal..” etc. it’s looking to be a massive waste of time, effort, talent and a lot of money is the issue. If there are good reasons for that, I’m not sure I know them.

I don’t think that’s true. It’s more like the Balogun situation, a player that looks better than Bothroyd - who had talent, and people are expressing some disappointment that he might leave not saying anything about Arteta.

So Arsenal need to start playing any 19 year old who thinks he’s ready for the first team ?

A logical explanation might be st Étienne polluted the guys thoughts during his loan about the cup final thing. It could be due to a personal issue. Somethings up with it I agree.

Regardless of somethings up and it’s probably nothing to do with the new manager who again like many things inherited whatever situation this is. We aren’t in the bottom half of the table because we aren’t starting Saliba

Might be
Could be
Probably
Whatever situation this is.

This is why people have questions. Journalists are now putting this directly at the feet of Arteta fairly or unfairly. And people are asking the question. I can’t see much wrong with that. I want to see Saliba play 5 minutes here and there at least. That should be the minimum expectation when you pay £30M for a player and when that doesn’t happen it’s not unreasonable to need a better explanation than the very little that’s come out.

I’m not expecting him to save the season and you can have discussions simultaneously. Are we not allowed to discuss anything that’s not directly the reason we’re 15th? Whilst wanting to see him given lots of time, I expect Arteta to make mistakes, he’s a rookie, not be an apologist for them.

That boy could have been a contender. He was a brilliant youth team player.

I’m not searching for apologies for his mistakes (if you consider this piddly shite mistakes) just pointing out the criteria for judging the arsenal manager has changed whereby previous managers would in no way have been criticised for deciding not to play an unproven 19 year old player like saliba or questioned for loaning out a player like Guendouzi who frustrated and pleased in equal measure.

Also I think it leads back to a point DHD made the other day that I thought was misconstrued on here when he said fans always think the player who isn’t playing changes everything. As much as I want to see AMN given a 10 game run I’m not foolish enough to believe it’s worth castigating Mikel on and would drastically alter our fortunes. I think this applies to Saliba and many other things but as you point out people are entitled to their opinions no matter how incorrect and stupid and can crack on

Indeed, and hopefully he can learn from mistakes as he develops. He appears to have the right character, and he is obviously an Arsenal man, so we want him to do well. Three points today will really help us all!

Nothing is inevitable in the twitter age, except the constant ventilation of people's insufficiently filtered, ill-considered and echo-chamber conditioned thoughts.

Mark my words: a couple of wins and the tune will change from 'the internationale' to 'land of hope and glory'.

Oh absolutely.

Aubameyang scores a couple and he’ll go back to being the saviour rather than being lazy since his contract waste of space people are accusing him of.

Southampton are going to give us a helluva game midweek. They are flying. Forget the team and the players we'll be playing a team 3rd in the league whilst we'll be down somewhere around 15th. It will be a very tough game.

Southampton have such a settled side. Of course the teams in Europe have to rotate but it is no surprise to me every season that the smaller teams who do well each season are those with the most settled side.

The salient points are
1) it the flack helpful? I am sure that Arteta is acutely aware of the problems he faces and the mistakes he has made. My sense is that he needs more space rather than more pressure.
2) We're 15th but if we win our game in hand we are only 6 points behind Chelsea. Put a run together and we'll fly up the table like a floater escaping from a submarine. Let see how it goes.

Yes but that's what everyone said about me.

Even a win today probably only moves us up 1 place in the table. The table is very congested but we're not in the congested part. A few good results in a row will pull us up no problem, but the longer we go on this bad run the further away the congested part of the table is. 6 points separate 3rd to 12th - but we're another 4 points behind 12th as it stands