Tough run of matches coming up: Leeds, Man City, Leicester, Tottenham, West Ham, Liverpool.

I'd say between 6-9 points would be realistic given current form so we're probably not going to be charging up the table towards Top 6.

Irrespective of any cost cutting exercises Arsenal need some better PR reps. We can’t be the only club going through this but we seem to be the only ones going through it very publically.
I don’t know the ins and outs of the club as a business and whether these cost cutting redundancies are required or just part of an overall club wide drive for efficiency but either way we don’t come out the other side looking very good. People will always bring it back to the latest highly paid under performing player who would earn probably three times as much in 1 week as some of these employees earn in a year. I mean you could effectively give Willian a 2 week fine for his covid breaking Dubai trip and you’ve probably paid this guys salary for 6-8 years

That is a tough run, add in 2 games against Benfica in there as well.
If we don't perform you could conceivably make a reason for us losing all 6 of those. 6 strong teams who apart from Spurs will all come and attack us. About time we saw something threatenig on the counter attack.

Hi gb,

Well, we are so goal-shy I'd say we'd be very lucky to get 9 points and 6 is a realistic, perhaps even optimistic, target.

Women's football doesn't get the requisite attention and respect it deserves. A shame.

We need to start 'not losing' games. Sounds simple but there are some games that are just difficult to win so you just make sure you don't lose them, take the draw as the minimum. Leicester at home is a prime example from this season. We played well first half, couldn't get the break through, we tired, they changed their tactics and it should have been a 'don't lose' focus then.
City, Spurs and Liverpool all at home (not that home/away seems to make much difference this season) the aim from those 3 should be a minimum of 5 points. a win and 2 draws. I'd happily lose to City if it meant we beat Spurs and Liverpool though!
Then Leeds, West Ham, Leicester - again we should be looking at a win and two draws as a minimum.

We need to be looking at 2 wins 4 draws, or 3 wins 2 draws and a defeat if we have any realistic chances of top 6 for europe

https://www.football365.com/news/chance ... e-grealish

List of the top 3 players per club for chances created per 90 minutes. Look at our top 3 compared to almost every other club. There are some very average players creating far more than even our best players

We have 3 more points that last season's corresponding fixtures.

We've scores 5 fewer from all but the same quality of chances but also conceded 8 fewer and reduced the quality of the expected goals against by 7.

Defence has improved, still need to cut out the individual mistakes, the attack must improve without detriment to the quality of the defence.

Good news on the injury front, Partey isn't serious and could play v Leeds. Although I'd be happy for him to sit out for fear of breaking him long term.
Tierney's injury is more related to fatigue so could be back sooner.

In light of this and the need to rotate and find balance in the team I wonder if Arteta puts Saka back to left back. He's shining on the right but I wonder if Ødegaard can come and play a role there? Having Saka and Pépé down the left and Ødegaard and Emile Smith Rowe drifting right would seem a good balance still, especially if we can start getting Pépé in to those more central areas that he thrives in allowing Saka to play naturally wide on his left foot.

Of course the alternative is to leave Cédric there, leave Saka right and maybe rotate Emile Smith Rowe with Ødegaard. We still have Aubameyang and Martinelli on the bench.

We’re off to Rome then.

https://www.skysports.com/share/12213295

Second leg still to be decided. All very weird, especially if away goals come into it (as has happened when the two Milan clubs met).

Would make more sense to play as a one-off at a neutral ground but I guess that the tv networks have something to say about that.

Benfica v Arsenal 1st leg will be played in Rome.

It seems to still be a 2 legged tie, and I assume away goals still count although if both legs are played on a neutral ground that would be an utter nonsense.

The second leg, which is the home one, is in Athens.

Second leg in Athens.
So we have stopped each team travelling once and made each team travel twice.
The decision to still use away goals is one of the most stupid I’ve ever heard. The rule is pretty irrelevant in normal home/away ties anyway nowadays.
What it also means is as the ‘home team’ in the second leg we will have to potentially face 120 minutes with the threat of an away goal of the tie goes to extra time. The balancing out of having those extra 30 minutes in front of your own fans is now lost.

Really bizarre news today that allegedly Saliba released a Snapchat video of a team mate....let’s say pleasuring himself...in the dressing room. Apparently filmed 3 years ago.French FA are investigating. All very strange.

Possible team line up for Sunday.

Can’t wait for someone to blame Arteta for this guy rubbing one out in public .

Seriously wtf

So much for taking salary cuts by some last season. And there's that recent £120M corporate loan that was taken out to cover C19 losses. Though a temporary fix to be paid back in May.
For whatever reasons Brindle is another that is surplace to requirements.
Who knows if Willain was fined or not, but that alone is enough to cover a few extra salaries.

Interesting this is just released after Saliba's media outing of his disappointment with Arteta's handling of his playing time at the club.
Really nothing strange in this coming out. Also Saliba and Guendouzi were both in the French U21 team in 2018. Not blaming Guendouzi per se on this leak, but he didn't take kindly to Arteta's handling of the Brighton Maupay player incident last year. Doubt Guendouzi really has anything against Saliba possibly.

What team mates videoing each other whacking off in the dressing room ? Pretty strange to me I can’t say it’s a regular one!

Choking the Bishop isn’t the Arsenal way.

Weak man management by Arteta not to talk to Saliba about it. Leno should have educated his team mate and Tierney clearly wasn’t around to give advice so he’s at fault too. There you go loaded bases for Gaz and Socrates

The television companies presumably had a contract entitling them to show two games, and that was surely the deciding factor not having ties settled by one match.

I fully agree that counting away goals when both games are played at neutral venues behind closed doors is a nonsense. The only explanation I can think of is that UEFA have their rules on deciding winners and losers in two legged ties that finish equal on goals, using away goals and only resorting to a penalty shootout if the away goals are also equal.

UEFA must have decided, being the games at neutral venues are formally given home and away status for each team, that it was preferable to keep their established away goal rule in place rather than temporarily change their rules.

Hi Zed. How does Guendouzi come into this story? If he gets on with Saliba, why would he leak it? Anyway, wouldn’t it if anything strengthen Arteta’s idea that Saliba isn’t yet ready for Arsenal, although if it was three years ago that was prior to him joining Arsenal (as it was prior to Guendouzi joining Arsenal)? If so, if it was to help anyone, wouldn’t it be Arteta? So if Guendouzi doesn’t like Arteta, why would he leak this story?

Are there are indications of who the young French player was that Saliba videoed masturbating? Because he’s the one who may feel as embarrassed as hell, and perhaps he’s the one who arguably may be most angry about the story being leaked.

From what I understand this was the lowest viewed Super Bowl rating since 2007.

Viewership has been declining for the NFL for several years now.

Bump in the road games recently or we are back to pre December form?

Good point about the extra 30 minutes. I’d not even thought about that one.

All nuts. Last season’s Champions League had the matches played as one offs from the quarterfinals onwards. It would have made sense to have followed that precedent. But the football authorities aren’t noted for sense are they? Especially when chasing the tv money.

Or Arsene Wanker?

Saliba has been voted the fans player of the month at Nice. I haven't watched any of the games but read that when he first joined they were playing a back 3 and he was flanked by 2 non french speaking players. Nice have since moved to a back 4 and bought in Todibo a young french lad to play alongside him and performances have improved.

Seen some scout reports that say one of the big concerns with Saliba is despite his stature at 6ft 4 he doesn't attack and dominate defensive set pieces.

I still have hopes that he can come back to us next season and be a good player for us but it appears there is still work to do with more coaching and building bridges between personalities.

On a similar point I have no idea where we are with Guendouzi. Is the rift between him and Arteta irreparable at this stage? Money will be tight again in the summer and unless we can get a good fee for Guendouzi and identify a replacement for he same or less money then we'd be better placed having him back as part of the squad. Torreira feels a bit different, a move back to Italy and we try to recoup as much money as possible.
CM for us is Partey, Xhaka, Ceballos, Elneny, Willock, Guendouzi, Torreira - the last 5 of those to varying degrees have question marks over their Arsenal future. Xhaka will stay for sure.

Continuing the madness. So not Athens then.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/footba ... 19256.html

Wonder if the likelihood of Saliba ever having an emotional affinity with the club has been lost? Maybe if Arteta is sacked there might be, but other than that I’m struggling to see how there can be any real chance. I bet he deeply regrets joining Arsenal.

Omar Richards is another interesting player for a back up left-back. Bayern Munich are very interested and supposedly close to a deal as they will lose Alaba on a free in the summer.
Richards is at Reading, 22 years old and of course counts as a home grown player

https://www.skysports.com/football/news ... g-defender

Possibly the most famous guitar riff ever. I can tell you that pretty much every kid in the HS I went to who played (or rather tried to play) guitar, would practice this over, and over and over and over again in the music room.

Another thing, I had no idea they mentioned Frank Zappa and the Mothers in the song. I've heard the song countless times but never recalled the song. I only knew the hook and the riff.

Hi Bernard,
Not deliberately saying Guendouzi is the one who leaked the video. I doubt he would just to vindicate his dissatisfaction with Arteta.
Whether Saliba himself or somebody else did, obviously didn't consider the consequences of their actions. Thing is, why would a 3 year old video of a teammate pleasuring himself be released anyway. Hence why I stated the timing of its release is after Saliba's remarks of his being unhappy with Arteta's not giving him enough playing time.
And yes, the player being filmed should not be very pleased about it at all.

Perspective ...

I've put in a call to Inspector Morse to get to the bottom of this Saliba video business.

... to put it mildly.
We need players who have (at least) been properly potty trained.

Can we just take a moment to remind ourselves of these Jose Mourinho quotes when we beat spurs 5-4 back in 2004.

Spurs currently losing 5-4 to Everton

I read today Arsenal have to pay Benfica £44k (10% of the fee we receive for the home leg of our Europa league game) because we/the uk have placed the travel ban from Portugal.
Seems a bit harsh that Arsenal effectively get fined for something completely out of our control

You’ve mentioned the disappointment of Tottenham fans about their side often being boring to watch under Mourinho. Well they weren’t boring tonight. Ironically the Tottenham fans I know would rather have sat through a tedious Jose type goalless performance until injury time when they nick an undeserved 0-1 win with a last minute own goal.

It is very difficult for me to conceive Saliba couldn't make the bench or deemed below Luiz, Mustafi, and others. If he was truly as behind as we are led to believe, then sack the scout. Give me a plane ticket, a clipboard and lodgings and I'll do it at cost.
https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/ ... a-19813375

I’m certain every fan would rather have a boring win than an exciting loss. My point on spurs fans and Jose is they aren’t getting boring wins any more. There has been at least 3-4 occasions this season when they’ve taken the lead sat back for 80 minutes and got stung late on and draw 1-1.
Fans will accept boring football if it wins you games and trophies. Fans will also have their own expectations of a club. With Jose in charge it feels like he has pinned Spurs as plucky underdogs, eroding away the work Poch did of making the players and fans believe that they can compete at the top and should be aiming for that with belief and confidence.
If you play attacking exciting football and come up short you will last longer in the job than a manager who’s approach is safety first and dull and also comes up short. Especially if you’re a team like spurs.
I’m sure Jose will point to the 5-4 tonight to show he can’t trust his team to play attacking football. For me I’m happier Jose is in charge of spurs than Poch. Maybe not in a 1 off game but long term I am