Forest paying £44.5m for Morgan Gibbs-White from Wolves. That's what we paid for Gabriel Jesus.

Crazy

One thing the Amazon documentary has showed though is the kind of futility and difficulty of Arsenals predicament over the last few years

You have this young coach shouting at his players when bad results come saying it isn’t good enough because he might get fired if he doesn’t finish higher than fourth because the club has been in the wilderness for years yet in his own heart of hearts as a professional he must have known this is a very young team with little adequate back up on the bench. I mean he’s even screaming at them after Newcastle when we had a makeshift defence and no partey.

The players must have been in the dressing room thinking *%^@* sake mate I’m only 22. I mean the documentary shows the level of focus, tactics and motivation our coaching team gives the team so for them still not to do it really I don’t think you can really fault the coaches or even the players really. It’s like the standard we need to achieve is beyond our ability to deliver financially and professionally.

I really hope this season we can return a cup or league position that gives the coaching team some credit to continue our development because the futility of changing and starting again in such a highly competitive sporting league seems just futile.

Yeah that post sounds negative on a re read and maybe I woke up on the wrong side bed today.

I guess maybe I just feel even despite our new signings i just kind of don’t see it right now if you know what I mean and I’m not sure it’s anyones fault.

I’d say based on his initial showing Gabriel Jesus easily looks our best player coming into this side and I’m not sure if that says something about where we are, after that saka and loads of promising players but it doesn’t feel like one for now.

Who knows. We’ll probably blow away the teams in our next few games, normal service will be resumed and I’ll be back in William hill sticking a monkey on us winning the league and buying pints of madri for all and sundry around kings cross after every game we win.

With Arsenal scoring the highest number of goals from corners since the start of last season I thought I'd share a stat I read. In the Prem league there is a 3% chance of scoring from a corner. Inswinging and Outswinging corners have roughly the same % chance at around 2.5% but short corners have closer to 5% chance of ending up in a goal.

Unsurprisingly City take the most short corners and perhaps their goals are skewing the stat, so someone like Fulham shouldn't start switching to short corners to get a 3% better chance from them.

Arsenal put 75% of their corners in as inswinging. Teams who do this tend to have players who can deliver accurate flat corners at pace (Saka, martinelli). Liverpool were one of the biggest % of outswinging corners and teams that do this tend to have taller players to come on to the ball and power headers in (van dijk)

Completely forgot about Kompany. Also Stam?

Soc mentioned a CM and I agree. Maybe I've been spoiled by Paddy. Partey is a fine player. I've said before, I thought he'd be a wee bit better based on comments about him and the little I've seen of him. That said, he's very good, but I want a more dominating sweeper type if not a Kante at his prime type.

I know what you mean, but for the first time in ages, I kind of know what we are, where we're at as a club and the potential we have. I think we absolutely can get top 4, wouldn't be surprised if we didn't, but absolutely know that we are improving as a club. If Arteta was sacked tomorrow, the identity of the club and starting point for any new manager is the highest it's been for quite a while. We have an identity again and whilst there absolutely will be some blips, we feel on an upwards trajectory for sure. With one or two more signings, which I feel optimistic will happen, I think we could get CL football again.

https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/clubs/

Really looking forward to the Europa this season.
Last season without Europe was just horrible.
Looking at that list of teams in link provided we must be one of the strong favourites.
Frustrating that when we have been in it recently we have had strong teams drop into it or strong teams already in it like Atletico who beat us in the semi and Chelsea in the final another year.
Look at when Utd bloody won it , was weaker than it was for us and even last year the final was Rangers v Frankfurt. Having said that Frankfurt did knock out Barcelona!
Have to hope all the favourites have strong champions league qualifying groups so none of them drop into the Europa.
Really have to take this competition seriously when it gets to the knock out stages.

I think most fans share this sentiment now, which is nice to see. Someone made a comment that it's been a while since Arsenal went this long in a summer transfer window without signing anyone (almost a month since Zinchenko joined) without the fans having a meltdown about it.

Shame for Charlie Patino although (so far) it doesn’t sound like a long term issue.

https://www.lancs.live/sport/football/f ... e-24790775

To add to this Wolves themselves just bought Matheus Nunes - one of the best and most sought after young players in Europe for virtually the same price

https://www.mailplus.co.uk/edition/spor ... hared_link

Mike Dean admitting he got the Romero hair pull wrong. I know a draw was good for us, but that mistake from an experienced VAR ref who had time to review the incident from multiple angles cost Chelsea 2 points and meant Romero isn't facing a 3 game ban.

*Romero might miss 3 games with an injury but that's by-the-by

We're the current favourites for the trophy at 6/1 or with most bookies.
As you say, you need the big boys to finish top 2 in their CL group, that includes Spurs - they can get knocked out next round but I don't want them dropping in to Europa (finishing 4th in their group would be ideal!)

In another piece, Cucrella said he wouldn't cut his hair.

I feel our improvement definitely and last season when everyone was demanding the managers dismissal I was urging persistence but I can just see a scenario where if our finish is less than perfect the negativity will return and we will be forced to Change again and that is just a lottery.

I mean I’m watching united right now and laughing. That blokes going to get himself fired Everyone is blaming the glazers but he was supposed to be one of the highly rated managers in Europe but lost his first 2 games, signed a 5.9 centre half midget from his old club who got torn to pieces and just won’t work in the premiership, tried to sign Arnoutovic who played under him before whose a tosser nowhere good enough for that club and now is trying to sign his former winger unsuccessfully despite the fact players from the Eredivisie have been hit and miss in this league. Change the manager and coaching staff and anything can happen.

Hopefully you are right and we sign 2 new players hopefully including an experienced pro and we kick on.

My mood hasn’t been helped by the fact I was sat on the beach drinking pina coladas last Friday and now I’m back in this total khazi of a country up to my knee in work again.

That incident with Cédric doesn’t reflect well on Lacazette. Booting youth players because you got tackled.

The documentary shows the leaders in the team. From my view it’s clear the leader in the dressing room above all others is Xhaka. Other leaders in different ways look to be Holding, Cédric, Lacazette….other vocal or personable players are Ramsdale and Saka. Seems to be a lot of very quiet and shy players though.
But having watched it all especially the dressing room parts pre match, half time and post match there does still seem to be a lack of genuine natural leadership in the group. Perhaps it’s youth, perhaps inexperience. It doesn’t have to be someone who shouts and screams but it is someone in those difficult moments who pulls people together.

From my view it is 95% Arteta doing all of this role still.

Man U bidding 80m euros for Ajax’s Anthony, rejected, may move on to PSV’s Gakpo. Both wingers but play on opposite sides. Supports the scattergun approach to their transfers.

Dean loves Spurs

Good for him. Gotta let that freak flag fly.

I think Man U are going to dump something like £200m in the last few days of the window.

Lots of rival fans point to us having spent £250-300m in Arteta's time in charge, but the reality is we've bought essentially an entire new squad with that money.
Ramsdale, Turner, White, Gabriel, Tomiyasu, Cédric, Zinchenko, Tavares, Partey, Lokonga, Vieira, Ødegaard, Jesus and add bringing through academy products Saka, Emile Smith Rowe and Nketiah, and being the first manager to play Saliba......

So that's 12 first team players and 3 academy graduates.

If you took a team like Man U and gave them £250m could they build a side as competitive as ours and have it set for the next 5 years because of the age profile?

...or write off the first half of the season. Plan for a change in management and new players in January.

I have found myself being surprised just how much one way ranting there is in the dressing room, particularly when things haven’t gone well.

I had kind of expected a multi-way dialogue about why what had been planned wasn’t happening and to get the team invested in fixing it. It comes across as schoolboys trying to avoid the headmaster’s gaze.

Hopefully some of this is to do with dramatisation by Amazon and bigging up certain parts.

I expect that there is more under the covers. If it was only ranting without substance then we wouldn’t be making the progress that we are.

It’s a Very young squad I get the impression that when things haven’t gone our way Arteta hits them with his thoughts and addresses it on the Monday after.

There a very few experienced pros in that dressing room. Xhaka, partey and a departing Lacazette. Nobody had really been there and done it.

Xhaka comes across well I thought

The managers comments I thought were spot on about certain things especially what the *%^@ was happening during the Everton and Newcastle away games. Not winning a first, second or third ball.

All in all I think that documentary has helped the club and the efforts to humanise the relationship with the fans, you can see after defeats they are gutted.

I think these documentaries help all fans understand the players better. You often hear 'oh the players don't care' - they obviously do care, they're all devastated when they lose and carry it for a while, every player at every club. I think criticisms of lack of effort are more appropriate from fans than 'they don't care'.
Effort is interesting though, we expect 100% from every player for 95 minutes irrespective of the score, any injury, any tactical instruction or anything else tat might be going on in their life. It is a lot easier to show that commitment and effort when a) everyone else in the team is doing it b)the crowd is supporting you and c) when you're winning

In terms of Arteta, I think the positives far outweigh the negatives from the documentary and we must remember he's a complete rookie, the equivalent of a 19 year old striker starting for us week in week out. I think he will learn when to go at the players and when to not, and will learn how to channel his passion to the players so it isn't the headmaster ranting at his pupils. I recall Wenger once said he would limit the amount of times he goes absolutely crazy at the players through a season as if you do it too often it hugely loses impact.

Fora club that is prone to spending huge sums on players Real Madrid have done pretty well to move on their older players for decent sums of money and have a good stream of younger players ready to fill the void.

Casemiro for £70m at 30 years old is too good for them to turn down, especially as they have Tchoumeni and Camavinga waiting to step in

That’s crazy. This is a trolley dash reminiscent of the 6-1 week when we signed a spew of players in days out of desperation. (It’s crazy to think we didn’t fire wenger after that moment, and people think we are doing bad now !)

They are offering crazy money for any old *%^@. It’s wonderful

I guess you mean the 8-2? We finished third that season, which wasn't too disastrous.

Oh yeah that was it. We had some really heavy defeats and I forgot which one it was. 8 *%^@*** goals

For extra context, we got one point more in the 8-2 season than 2021/22 and finished two places higher. It's a funny old game, football.

DECAF - Question for you please if you've a moment.

Watching the cricket with Nortje batting.

We brits would normally pronounce his name Norcha but the commentators seem to be pronouncing it is Nor-Keeya, or am I mis-hearing?

I get the -eeya but why the K?

Arteta's first match as manager was v Bournemouth - here's the line up from that game.

Leno
Sokratis
David Luiz
Maitland-Niles
Saka
Xhaka
Torreira
Nelson
Özil
Aubamenyang
Lacazette

Aaron Ramsdale played for Bournemouth

2011/12 season, such a strange one. We had the last minute trolley dash which was after the 8-2 and a 2-0 home loss to Liverpool in which Frimpong got sent off. The Man U game had players like Gilles Sunu on the bench. Arteta and Per came in to steady the ship, little did we know they'd be running the club 10 years later.
We beat Chelsea away 5-3 and 2-1 away at Liverpool and beat Spurs at home 5-2 . Lost 4-3 at blackburn and had 10 defeats in the season. Van Persie scored 30 league goals, we were knocked out of the CL by AC Milan after nearly completing a miraculous comeback at home after losing the first leg 4-0 and on the final day we edged past west brom 3-2 thanks to a last minute Gibbs block (which I think had that famous moment of Wenger almost asking Pat Rice to cradle him as he couldn't take the tension!) We finished 3rd just ahead of Spurs and at that time only the top 3 got Champions league!

I remember that 8-2 very clearly.

I was in Cape Cod for the wedding of one of my son’s best mates.

A hurricane had wiped out the electricity but the Yanks set up a generator and huge screen especially so that we (several of us there) could watch the big match first thing in the morning. Oh boy. What a score. Plenty of p*** taking from the non Gooners.

Arteta said everybody is fit! Cédric, Emile Smith Rowe and Vieira played the U21 game, came through unscathed and are available for selection.

The bench last time out was: Turner, Tierney, Holding, Tomiyasu, Elneny, Lokonga, Nketiah, Emile Smith Rowe, Pépé

There is 18 senior players plus Cédric and Vieira. Add in Bellerin, AMN, Nelson and Marquinhos (who Arteta has said won't go on loan)

Arteta also said he's 'very confident' over Saka's new contract. Whenever Arteta has said that before the player has signed - I'm thinking Balogan and Nketiah previously

Greetings DHD

tj is a ch sound. Chapter would be Tjapter. But it becomes a hard K if it has an e after it. k and c are both soft (kay and cee).

Its a bit more guttural than k in english.

If you think about clearing your throat, but actually don't, you get roughly the right sound.

It is a wonderfully earthy language.

Thanks Decaf - much obliged for clearing that up.

I'm afraid to us Brits, most Affrikaaners, Dutch and Germans tend to sound a like a bunch of porridge eaters. No offence. I know you guys rip the piss out of us effete Englanders.

In my defence, I have been to the Monument to the Afrikaans Language in Paarl. Have you?

EDIT
And congrats on a thumping win at Lord's. Innings and some spare with two and a half days left. Because most of Day 1 was lost, it's effectively over inside 2 days. That is a right royal stuffing. So much for Baz-Ball.

Just as well I ducked out of going tomorrow, as I'd originally planned.

Saka grew up in the club. Seems to have a level head. Gotta assume the dream of anyone who came up through the academy as young as he dreams of playing first team football and being a star for said club. Emile Smith Rowe and Saka are no different it seems. It's not always the case, Rooney comes to mind. It didn't take much for him to abandon Everton. Not saying it didn't turn out great but it wasn't like he was weeping about it either.

Been watching a bit of Shearer. I am reminded just how powerful of a shot he had.