I think Tavares became the sacrificial lamb, plenty were playing poorly, Tavares probably the worst - he was also right in front of Arteta in that first 30 minutes which won't have helped. Also Arteta had Tierney sitting on the bench who could immediately improve it. If he'd wanted to take his anger out on Lokonga for example there was nobody to bring on and make things better

That feels about right, but we should also judge the back up if it was thrown in with 10 first teamers rather than a patched up team. That said there are still gaping holes and I've never really understood some fans view that our squad is strong. It has numbers, we do have 2 players for every position but it is weak beyond the first 11.

Perhaps with our form and league position has artificially accelerated our opinions of what is success for us this season. For example, will we be hugely disappointed if we finish 5th this season from where we are? Whereas at the start of the season with 3 defeats and a lack of signings, or a need for new signings to bed in we'd have been ok with 5th.

Jack Wilshere as an emergency 1 month midfielder.......!?

Ghana (Partey) are in a group with Morocco, Gabon and Comoros. Some 3rd place teams qualify for the next round so not much chance of Partey coming home early

So when Arteta doesn’t sub someone quick enough he’s ripe for abuse because he doesn’t react quick enough but he’s also not allowed to sub someone early because he might upset them. The bloke can’t win.

This is elite sport there’s nowhere to hide frankly and letting someone know they aren’t delivering shouldn’t be an issue and yes it does happen in the workplace.

Arsenal lost £4.5m in lost ticket revenue by going out of the cup yesterday - apparently fans have 2 home cup games as part of their season ticket price. - Not sure if this would have been covered by our League Cup run? - anyone who is a season ticket holder know if you're due a refund?

I'm minded to agree. If Tavares's Arsenal career fails or he massively regresses because of this early sub that says more about Tavares than Arteta.

Arteta has a responsibility to speak to Tavares today and make it very clear why he did it and what he expects and then draw a firm line under it and no grudges held.

It's dealt with when STs are renewed next season, Rich. If we've played more or less than the two games allowed, the renewal cost will be higher or lower. League Cup ties aren't covered by STs.

You are right Socrates. It was a public humiliation that would have been best avoided. Nuno may have been having a stinker but he's a young player who's had a very positive start to his Arsenal career overall. Best left to half time.

Thanks. So no home Cup ties this year will mean next year's price is lower? How does that work if we're in europe and therefore guaranteed at least 3 or so extra home games? - does that then roll in to the season after?

Gidday Rich .... the only reason I see for not going overboard is to show opposing fans reading this site ; we are all well adjusted men of the world and to keep our own blood pressure at safe levels .
These performances have been happening over and over since the latter Wenger years .

Turn up against a little team and not turn up ......not a shot on target in a third round FA Cup tie ...how does that happen ?

One nil down five minutes to go and they are still exchanging safe passes among the back four ....... incredible .
Lack of quality can happen but there should never ever be a lack of effort . God knows what Mikel said at half time because I didn't notice any improvement .

Until Arteta can brain wash the whole squad into playing accurate passes forward at speed these performances will remain a quite regular occurrence for Arsenal .

Sad story. Cristiano's academy mate at Sporting who he said was much better. Without a proper support system in football or entertainment, you can fall into bad habits and such and ruin your opportunties. I've seen it first hand with people I went to school with. We saw in football in America with the hype over Freddy Adu.

The article doesn't mention his family in any detail.

https://www.givemesport.com/1815280-cristiano-ronaldo-said-fabio-paim-was-a-better-player-than-him-what-happened-next

We have a pair of league leading full backs on defensive stats. Tomiyasu has been an absolute revelation and should be mentioned in team of the year conversations

Yeah well you two both obviously attended the Mother Teresa Footballing Seminar ...... and passed with flying colours

Soc mentions Mourihno as living proof of not being hard nosed in the subs business ...what about Alex Ferguson , Brian Clough , Ron Saunders , George Graham they had no trouble with things like that .

I agree with Top Gun ....worry about the players feelings ....please give me strength .

Tavares should grow a pair , look in the mirror and move on . His little hissy fit ripping off his gloves and chucking them down on the touchline as he was subbed .....how old is he ......three ?

This one of things wrong with modern day footballers they are so bl***dy precious ... right now he'll be venting his spleen on Twitter , Instagram , Facebook , Linkedin or some attention seeking platform .

The more I read about Vlahovic (and most must be speculating) the more I think just based on the figures being quoted we need to swerve the deal. 70m euros and he wants £300k per week. There are very few clubs in the world that can afford for a transfer like that to go wrong. Perhaps only City, Chelsea, PSG and Man U.

Give me Jonathan David for £40m and under half the wages any day.

I agree, Rich, stupid numbers are being banded around. There is no guarantee he would even be a success in the PL, Serie A is a much slower and less physical league.

If your paying Nketiah and Lacazette 250k a week combined is it really that bad?

There’s usually a compromise with wages if you work out some bonuses. He’s probably the most sought after striker in Europe excluding mbappe and Haaland big money will come with the territory.

Jonathan David plays in second striker normally right ? Is he the type we need.

Can’t see it anyway

The problem is if (as we’ve found) if you’re paying a player £300k a week there are not many clubs you can sell him to if it goes wrong. And if it goes wrong how many of those clubs would actually want to sign him.
I think his goal stats are slightly padded out by a lot of penalties, 11 over the last season and a half.
He’s obviously good and highly rated but at that fee and with those wages it represents a huge risk. For what it’s worth I don’t think the player wants to come to us so maybe the wages being quoted are with that in mind and he only has 18 months left on his deal so that has to be factored in to the price.
My bet is he stays until the summer and gets a move to Juve

Ollie Watkins looks good tonight. I quite like him, the price would be high with a English tax, but I like the type of striker he is and think he fits with our other players. Versatile as he’s playing wide tonight, good pace, tremendous workrate and pressing. You’d want to see more of his back to goal play and see what his one touch technique is like for that link or false 9 type striker.

I agree about Vlahovic and the other bloke I know nothing about.

It's an enormous amount of money, and as you say we need to get it right. The thing is, I don't think goalscoring is the primary thing we should be looking for in a striker, it's equally important to get someone who can bring others into play, link up with the wide forwards, receive the ball with his back to goal etc.

Last year, City won the league with Gundogan as their top scorer at 13 goals. A more realistic comparison is perhaps Liverpool - when they won in 2020 Firmino had 9 goals. Saka, Smith-Rowe, Martinelli, Pépé and even Ødegaard has goals in them, and if we can find someone who ticks all the boxes I mention we could do fine with a central striker who scores 15 rather than 25-30.

I think we all agree that Lacazette isn't good enough to be first choice, but even with his limitations he has shown what someone with the right qualities can do for our team play. A younger, better version of Lacazette would be great, and I don't think you have to spend 70m to find one.

That’s where I don’t like var. the var ref seemed determined to find a reason to rule out the goal, whether it was a block, offside or handball. It was given for the block which is a 50/50 call. As soon as the ref is told to go to the monitor you know the original decision is being changed every single time

I like him too, but that bracket of players is where the English tax just gets in the way. He should be a 20-25m player, but I'm guessing it would take around 40 to even start the conversation.

If the rumours and figures being banded around are true then I admire the clubs ambition and tenacity over attempting to sign Vlahovic but it feels like a bit of a wild goose chase.

Truth is that whoever doesn't land Haaland in the summer may well turn to Vlahovic so for us its probably now or never, but he and his agents obviously know the summer is likely to see a scramble for his signature.

For the kind of money we are allegedly prepared to spend he needs to be the real deal, though.

He's a big strong lad with good technical ability but my one concern is that he's not the quickest and might find it tricky in the PL where pace is a key asset.

I'd be very, very surprised if Vlahovic ends up at Arsenal either now or in the summer.

Tammy Abraham and Dominic Calvert Lewin in the same sort of bracket.
Abraham will end up back in the prem in a few years for sure I think

I thought Man U were poor and disjointed again tonight despite winning. Villa we’re the better side.
The threat of Man U for a top 4 place will come from the depth of their squad. Players not in what I’d consider their first 11 are: dalot, Lindelof, bailly, Jones, telles, Matic, vd beek, lingard, cavani, martial, Pogba, rashford, mata. That is ridiculous compared to the depth of our squad, some of these are the sort who can have a moment of individual skill that has been dragging Man U to results they don’t deserve over the last 18 months.

I’ve seen more of Abraham, Watkins and Calvert-Lewin because I’ve seen every game they’ve played for Chelsea, Villa and Everton against us, and highlights of them playing against others on programmes like MOTD. To be honest I’m slightly underwhelmed by all of them, considering what they’d cost.

I’ve never seen Vlahovic kick a ball, even on telly. I’ve got no idea what he’s like. Socrates says Vlahovic lacks pace and others have discussed what he’d cost in transfer fees and wages. That’s an issue but if Arsenal do end up signing him, or even genuinely attempting to buy him, I’ll go back to my previous question.

Are the Kroenke’s financially doping us now? That’s why I think the important question to Josh in that interview should have been whether the £160m Arsenal spent last summer, more than any other English club, came from the club’s own finances (perhaps unlikely as didn’t we make a very big loss prior to that, even though the annual accounts no longer have to be as detailed since KSE took 100% ownership of the shares in 2018)? It wasn’t asked.

There’s not a huge difference between the wealth of Abramovich and Stan as individuals, so I’m never impressed with claims that we can’t compete financially with Chelsea. Indeed, as I’ve pointed out before the fortune of the Kroenke’s (Stan and his wife Ann) actually exceeds that of Sheikh Mansour, Manchester City’s owner. Sure, some tried saying they keep their money separate, but it was shown that when there was actually some legal problem with KSE’s ownership of a couple of Stan’s American sports clubs, Ann bought them for him. Ipso facto, I suspect the Kroenke’s are no different to most married couples. Their money should be looked at together as well as separately.

The reason we haven’t previously competed financially with others owned by multi-billionaires was a conscious decision by Stan not to let us. Maybe the heavy losses Arsenal were incurring even before the £160m spend last summer, along with not even getting into Europe this season which also has financial consequences, enabled Josh to persuade his dad to financially dope us to get the club back to where he hopefully thinks it should be?

I must be honest, I don’t watch as much football as some of you. I would have to be paid a lot of money to watch a Fiorentina game on the telly if they weren’t playing Arsenal. I haven’t even bothered watching the YouTube clips of Vlahovic as I think they could make Perry Groves look like Messi.

So I can’t comment on his quality, goal scoring, work rate, technique, style of play, pace or anything else. I’ve seen photos of him and he looks a well built lad so should be physically strong. But apart from that, I don’t know anything about him. Any gym bunny with a six pack could look a good physical specimen in a football kit, even if he’s the worst footballer ever. For me, if our attempts to sign Vlahovic are genuine a main issue is where will the money come from?

I think it’s a decent question Bernard and I think a lot lies in some of the points mertesacker made in this interview ..

Commenting on the change in strategy, Mertesacker told Suddeutsche: "We are in a state of upheaval and are building a team capable of development, which should be peppered with players from our own youth and professionals from abroad.
"In the meantime, we had lost our way. We tried to make the connection to the top faster with costly commitments. We fell on our face with that."

.. I think the new regime has done a decent job of convincing kroenke to part with the cash for quality players as otherwise it involves spending twice and eventually more . My gut feeling is he’s referring to transfers like mykhitaryan who we were paying 170k a week, Luiz and Čech all making a fortune in wages. Ozils last new contract and lack of performance. I think they have looked at how absurd all of that was and are going in a different direction and now signing players like this chap from fiorentina is realistic if it’s financed the right way as we have been overpaying anyway for very average performers

On vlahovic from what I’ve seen of him he’s a bit of a left footed harry Kane type. He looks quicker than Kane though

He’s leading the goal scoring in some pretty prestigious company and has scored twice as many as Abraham

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/it ... op-scorers


If we can get it done we shouldn’t hesitate he looks a real player but I don’t understand why he would want to join us. I could understand why fiorentina would want to sell now though. If they leave it till the summer they are almost in Bosman territory and won’t get much of a fee

I looked it up a few years back and Stan was quite low down in the billionaires stakes somewhere around 1 and a bit and Abramovich was 17 but having just checked it's about 4 billion difference

Stan 10 . 7 Abra 14 . 6 .

I 'd say it comes down to mindset of the two men .

Abramovich it was a status plaything and he didn't mind splashing his spare change around to pull Chelsea to the top ....... didn't he write off a couple hundred million Chelsea owed him ....? Could be wrong

Cant see Kroenke doing that , he just saw a business opportunity . I've no proof just whistling Dixie in the breeze .

He'd seem more likely to transfer some of his LA Rams debt to us maybe bolster Walmart if they are having a sh**t year .

Didn't they make sure they got paid one million pounds for some piffling sporting advice they gave us seems unusually petty given they have billions already .

From memory it was £3.5m he got for sporting advice. That was when it had to be declared in the annual accounts.

I don’t remember him ever having as little (if that’s the right word) as one and a bit billion. I thought it was always appreciably more than that. As you say though, the latest Forbes figures show Kroenke with 10.7b. But Ann and Stan have 20.3b and in my view it’s simply not fair to say their family wealth can’t be considered together. She bought Stan a couple of his American sports teams and is thus listed as their owner, even though KSE run them.

I don't expect us to win but I do expect us to show up against Liverpool. I'm hoping (more like demanding truth be told) that they make the fans forget about the insipid performance at Forest.

Liverpool away on Thursday and we have uncertainty over Xhaka, Emile Smith Rowe and Tomiyasu, as well as the 4 players away at AFCON. Maybe we should just get some false positives and get the game postponed…..

Good idea, let's test the FA

Liverpool are missing Salah, Mané, Thiago, Keita and TAA. I think Origi might be out too.

FabrizioRomano on Vlahovic: "The feeling I receive talking with people close to the player is its not going to be easy. Vlahovic turned down opportunity to join Arsenal in Oct/Nov when they approached him for January window. They need to do something crazy to change his mind"

The 'doing something crazy' bit is the part that concerns me.

Big players for sure, but their front 3 would/could be Jota/Firminho/Minamino and a midfield 3 of Fabinho/Henderson/Ox.

Our best chance is getting Saka up against whoever replaces TAA at right back

Spurs readying a £20m bid for Adama Traore. If the guy had some end product he'd be very. very good. He's not getting in the Wolves side right now.

Balogun is expected to finalise his loan deal to Boro today

Ghana lost their opening game 1-0 to Morocco. Hoping to get Partey back earlier if they get knocked out

We are missing 3 central midfielders if we assume that Xhaka is out. We knew at the start of the season that we would be missing Partey and Elneny for AFCON. So in effect, we are one short on what we planned for. We also have three central midfielders out on loan.