What is working well though is the back 4 and keeper. They look stronger every game, their understanding grows and they all take conceding a goal personally. Honestly Gabriel and white are no pushovers and how white didn’t get an England call up I don’t know.

With Tierney back fit does he come straight back in for Liverpool? Tavares has done very well and in many ways deserves to keep his place. Whoever plays there is up against Salah….

Me too AG! I'm forever blowing bubbles...

Liverpool away after the international break will be very interesting. They schooled us twice last season we barely got out of our own half in both games!
Defeat isn’t a disaster (but don’t let the players feel like that) but irrespective of the result I want to see a performance where we have a plan for how to hurt Liverpool. They’ve conceded 5 goals in the last 2 games against teams who actually went after them and crucially were brave!
I think if you sit in your own box v Liverpool their pressure tells especially with the delivery of their full backs and movement of the front players.
For me there are two key areas to hurt Liverpool (or 3 after seeing the way they defended set pieces today), you go in behind Trent who is vulnerable defensively and you target their central midfield, over power them physically and dominate the second ball and make the most of their midfield failing to track runners.
I also think part of being brave is committing to trying to beat their high press with some quick smart passing out from the back.

I’m actually going to be going to the match at Anfield so looking forward to seeing how the team do and fingers crossed for a clean bill of health from the international break

We're within touching distance of the top 4 but one stat really stands out between them and us. the top 4 have scored 27, 22, 23 and 31 goals each, we've scored 13. We're winning games so completely merit our position in the league but the weakness of scoring goals is still there. Even taking out those first 3 games it is only 13 goals in 8 games. We're still playing on relatively small margins in games which leaves us 1 mistake away from having a tough time winning games.

We're within touching distance of the top 4 but one stat really stands out between them and us. the top 4 have scored 27, 22, 23 and 31 goals each, we've scored 13. We're winning games so completely merit our position in the league but the weakness of scoring goals is still there. Even taking out those first 3 games it is only 13 goals in 8 games. We're still playing on relatively small margins in games which leaves us 1 mistake away from having a tough time winning games.

I think chance creation is still an issue, we have been unlucky in some games like villa where we should have had half a dozen.

Yesterday was a classic example really where we dominated possession in the first 45 but barely laid a glove on them in the period. Hanging on at the end felt ridiculous. There is too much dependency on Emile Smith Rowe and saka. If they don’t conjure up something we tend to struggle from other parts of the team

...So why is this? I wouldn’t have thought Italians players cost more. So is it that Arsenal’s managers from Wenger onwards, who himself probably started focusing more on French players before buying Germans and Spaniards, simply haven’t fancied them for whatever reason?

For many years it was rare for Italians to play anywhere outside of their own country. Serie A was very high quality and competitive, with three of the greatest clubs in the world. Until the Premiership took over the money was better than good. Also it might have been that the Italian FA rather frowned on those who did go abroad and preferred to give international caps to those who stayed at home. The clincher though must be living in Italy - what a place!

I wouldn't go that far, Decaf.

Seriously, though, it's great to see the legend that is Kiwi back on the board......if only to make the rest of us look intelligent.

The only two Italians that come to mind, over the last 30 years who both were players in the PL and lower tiers and were managers, are Paolo di Canio and Gianfranco Zola.

Gianluca Vialli,

I feel like nonchalant Aubameyang isn’t the best Aubameyang. I think he plays betters obviously if he’s confident, but a bit angry maybe.

Peter Bonetti , Peter Marinello

Peter Bonetti , Peter Marinello

Watched the West Ham v Liverpool highlights, West Hame are a real threat from set-pieces, notice how Antonio is blocking the GK on most of them - he's very strong so is difficult for the GK to get him out of the way. We play them in december some time - a wily manager would get a piece in the media in the build up to the game with something along the lines of complimenting West Ham on their set piece strength but noting they try to foul the GK and would hope the officials are watching closely. It would go down like a lead balloon with Moyes and West Ham but anything like that to put the ref on alert and even under a bit of extra scrutiny is worth it. Ferguson wouldn't have thought twice about doing it

Welcome back Kiwi. Hope all is well with you. The forum was a poorer place without your DIY anecdotes and your comparisons to 1970’s Arsenal teams.

Welcome back, Kiwi. It's your love of Terry Mancini - another legendary Italian international - that I've missed the most.

it's half a kangeroo over the side with a hook the size of the Titanic's anchor .

Gianluca Vialli, he was a pretty serious striker before chelsea. Remember him smashing in a serious scissor kick at Highbury for sampdoria in a friendly and thinking wow I wish we could have him.

The only two Italians that come to mind, over the last 30 years who both were players in the PL and lower tiers and were managers, are Paolo di Canio and Gianfranco Zola.

Yeah , yeah ........ Soc .. you know damn well your stakes at your local plummeted when not being able to recycle my pearls of wisdom

For any newer forumites don't be fooled ....... the Socrates moniker suggests some cool , calculated , knowlegable doodle when in fact this little turnip is the polar opposite .

Many thanks to Bernard , Warrior , Brom , Long Time , Top Gun for the welcome back ; really really nice caring cultured people

.... unlike the nematode I'm replying to on this post .

What about Ravenelli?

Thanks TG. Forgot about Vialli. After Sampdoria he went to Juve.

For many years it was rare for Italians to play anywhere outside of their own country. Serie A was very high quality and competitive, with three of the greatest clubs in the world. Until the Premiership took over the money was better than good. Also it might have been that the Italian FA rather frowned on those who did go abroad and preferred to give international caps to those who stayed at home. The clincher though must be living in Italy - what a place!

Hi OMOH, I think your last comment about living in Italy is probably the most accurate. Why would an Italian want to live in a completely different culture, learn English, put up with worse weather and worse food when they can still get paid a kings ransom and stay at home.

Similarly not that many English players seem to want to go to Italy either. While it's a hard transition with the language and cultural differences I always thought there would be some appeal to living and playing in Italy, even just for the experience. Although given the salaries they're on, most English footballers can just jump on the plane for the weekend and then fly home.

Emile Smith Rowe rightly getting a lot of talk and praise in the media at the moment, and generally Arsenal getting decent press for our run but I haven’t seen too much written that Arsenal had 3 academy products in our starting 11, plus another 2 Englishmen who were both written off as high priced flops before they’d kicked a ball for us. Add in a left back and centre mid both under 21 and both who 95% of the football media wouldn’t have even heard off. You probably don’t hear much because it would mean a bit of an about turn for some writers who had already formed their narrative on arsenal, sometimes that narrative goes back years.

I see your old mans back on line. Does his parole officer know about him using this site.

I see your old mans back on line. Does his parole officer know about him using this site.