Think you’re being a bit unfair there. Well, more than ‘a bit’. As I’m sure Rich has said, since Arteta arrived Mustafi arguably became our best central defender from those available before his injury. Hence offering him a new contract seems, to me, entirely logical. Moreover, Mari didn’t play enough games prior to his injury to make our minds up regarding how good or bad he really is. Luiz, despite some bad errors, has in my view been good overall since arriving. Must admit I count him as a more than decent signing.

Soares is another who hasn’t played much but in the games he has played, I’ve been quite impressed. Certainly done enough to convince me he’s strengthened the squad, which was surely what he was signed to do. With Willian, I haven’t given up on him. He can’t have lost his ability because he now wears an Arsenal kit instead of a Chelsea strip. Perhaps his slow start, and undeniably it has been slow, has more to do with playing a different system at Arsenal.

Also those 4 players only cost £10m in transfer fees (if you believe Mari cost £4m which is what his previous club said they received) Those cheaper stop gap signings are necessary I believe in how we are going to grow and build a team. We certainly can't spend £30m on every new player like Chelsea have, there will be players we have to buy who won't be in our long term vision but who can come in and fill a gap in the squad and hopefully improve us. I do have a problem with the size of wages being paid as we certainly need to get control of that, we're paying champions league wages to barely europa league level players in some cases. It will take a while to clear the decks.

Don't forget Jeans guy !

Get your holiday shopping early this season.

I have difficulty with the wages and the length of some of these contracts. Poster after poster complains of us not off-loading our problem players. Usually because they intend to go nowhere because of their wages and the lack of pressure at Arsenal. But we have just added to this with long contracts for new incomers for players who really are marginal at best.

Next to Pépé, the most disappointing thing is Saliba not deemed first team ready for the PL. I didn't expect him to start right away but to be starting regularly by now
He is a player that gooners had been talking about for well over a year. I would have thought he and Gabriel's status would be reversed. Saliba seemed a sure starter from the hype.

https://www.footballinsider247.com/excl ... een-light/
Arsenal are set to terminate the loan deal of defender Zak Swanson early, Football Insider can exclusively reveal.

The right-back, 20, has struggled to make an impact at Dutch side MVV Maastricht since joining on a season-long loan in the summer.

1. Pépé was MOTM in our last game. 2. Do you have any specific issues with Gabriel's performances this season that bring this rumination about him and Saliba to the surface?

Will anyone over the age of 7 actually wear that?

Tried to get one of the 2000 tickets for the Vienna game and failed. Kept getting a message ‘Error 503 Backend unavailable, connection timeout’ come up. Tried phoning the ticket office which was reserved for club level members and was waiting 40 minutes for someone to answer before I gave up.

I’m thoroughly peed off.

Finally listened to the Arsene Wenger desert island discs.

Very good, undoubtedly a remarkable person. I would highly recommend it. You will learn far more about him from that then the book

I must give e it a listen. I'm not surprised by the book. I tend to steer clear of sports autobiographies. Don't find them in the slightest bit interesting. In Wenger's case he is probably bound by all sorts of non-disclosure arrangements so can't really say anything of note.

Will do.
Its such a pity his legacy was tarnished by hanging around too long.

History will remember him well, regardless of the fact he only won the League three times and the FA Cup seven times. We should be so lucky to be able to describe any future manager's legacy as being similarly tarnished!

I hope you are right. A wonderful manager and man.

I wonder how Wenger’s trophy haul compares to other Arsenal managers on a time in charge basis? The time in charge is highly relevant, obviously. Quite easy to work out; it’s a question of finding the time and inclination to do it.

That is one way of looking at it. Another is the quality and duration of their best spells.

The Spurs fans must be wetting themselves. A chance to go two points clear and yet so many years of disappointment to temper their optimism .

I see that all 2K tickets for the Vienna at Ems match sold out in 20 minutes. Not surprised. Peeps want their football back.

Ring them and give them feedback. No need to be polite. As I understand it they had a way of distributing tickets in the eventuality limited numbers would return. Then they ignored it for this allocation.

I do hope we are able to overcome Wolves, not least because it's tedious having to scroll down to find Arsenal in the table.

It’s much quicker to scroll up.

Don’t worry I intend to. On Monday.

The original intention for reduced capacity games was to do it via a ballot, when it was hoped some fans would be let in for the Sheffield United game. But for the Vienna game they changed it to booking online, first come first served. Apparently on Twitter many were moaning that the online booking service this morning wasn’t working properly so I assume I wasn’t the only one getting that ‘Error 503 Backend unavailable, connection timeout’ message.

“Ceballos in midfield is a lender. He lends you the ball. He gives it to you to get the ball back. He is not putting the ball through the eye of the needle on a consistent basis for me."

Paul Merson quote on Ceballos is exactly right

The ballot system worked very well in Australia in the national rugby league. There were some variations if you had a family ticket but basically most people were very happy with the way the draws went.

Soton, Chelsea and us tonight hopefully.

Rumor but based on his overall performance, I'm giving it a wee bit of credence. I think we are probably 'thinking about it', and will cut our losses if things don't improve. Still too early in the season. BY the end of this season will probably be when a more concrete decision is made.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/55111044
Arsenal are ready to sell Ivory Coast winger Nicolas Pépé if a suitable buyer for their 25-year-old record signing can be found

Big game tonight. Both teams have struggled to score. We have identical for and against a poor 9 for 10 against. I think they are more dangerous down our right side so Bellerin will require those in front of him to help defensively. Take notice Willian.

Want I want is the team to start with immediate effort. I would like to see Saka rested until Spurs(provided he is fit) M-N to start. I assume we will be stuck with Xhaka, but he is on final chance. Forwards - Aubameyang to start in the centre again and he really needs to put some effort in.

I have little confidence in the team but still think we might steal it 1-0.

They won’t sell Pépé.

They would get half the money spent back and at the end of the day I think he’s our most creative player in the whole squad. You would need an expensive replacement too.

Exactly. Brian Clough anyone?

Cloughie was an incredible manager who, with Peter Taylor, drove two dormant middle-ranking clubs to football greatness. For doing so it could be argued he was the best of them all. For me Arsene sits one rung lower on the ladder because unlike Clough he took over at a "big club", and sadly he never won the European Cup. But what a manager he was and what football we saw under his leadership. Even the less successful second half of his time was full of dramatic games and many wonderful players.

How much do I win when the 1000 quid on my Soton, Chelsea, Arsenal trifecta comes good?

I spent some time on youtube looking both Derby and Forest matches and his interviews.
The Clough/Revie interview was surreal.
Great managers are forgiven for a variety of things, just like Wenger will be forgiven for a whole lot less than Graham or Clough. Graham is still remembered very well despite how he left.

D@mn it! Man Utd equalized.

shh!!!!

C'mon Soton. You bent over and grabbed your ankles.

Possible anomaly about tonight’s game. Apparently Leno is wearing the outfield away shirt due to a clash of kits. I have no idea who invents the rule. But we are at home so surely Wolves keeper should change his shirt? Weird if true.

Every time I watch chelsea I can’t help but observe Mason mount seems precisely the type of player are crying out for

Wonder if they would be interested in a swap with Xhaka

That’s plain bizarre

Firstly there’s no clash with wolves yellow or their white and blue away kit anyway.

Have we not got an away goalkeepers kit. We used to.