Problem with Ceballos is that if he maintains that level of performance this season then you will have city, United and other premiership clubs offering Madrid 100 million next summer. Probably one of the most impressive debuts I’ve seen for some time. Practically every touch and pass was excellent and he will show up Özil as a complete embarrassment if he keeps that up.

Also our midfield looks far more fluid without Xhaka.

I’d say he’s more of a Fabregas.

Also really nice to see Ceballos make a yard and shoot from 25 yards. Far too few of our players do this, or execute it well.

Can you believe spurs? Absolutely battered by city. Spurs have two shots and score two goals. City nearly 20 shots.

Heard a few times this is our best start to a season in 10 years with our two wins and I keep thinking so what? We’ve played Newcastle and Burnley and yes fair enough beaten them both but last year we he had Chelsea away and then City at home - we were always likely to struggle.

I’m immediately sad that we’ve got little chance of Ceballos sticking around, did you know he has a buyout in his contract? 500Million Euros... but I think I just need to get into the right mindset and think he’ll help us got back to where we want to be and that’s good.

I’m not looking beyond the Liverpool game perhaps that explains the sober outlook. I expect the team to rise to the occasion a bit, especially without the aerial bombardment al la Burnley, but I can see we aren’t quite firing enough for that to mean get anything from the game.

You made a couple of typos there. Let me edit that for you:

"we will defend like that against Liverpool and we will get hockeyed."

Jesus finds Spurs

Hopefully we get a result at Liverpool however it’s worth remembering that our battle is with spurs, chelsea and United. If we lose people shouldn’t get too despondent. There’s enough evidence to suggest we can do well this season.

That said I fully expect people to be calling for Emery’s head here next weekend.

Var is going to cause loads of issues this year. Such a clear penalty not given in the City game. The spurs man wrestled and flattened the city player. If that is reviewed it’s given. Who is deciding who reviews what? How far back do they review on a goal?

Am I right in saying our central midfield was 19,20 and 21 years old?

Ceballos is such a good player. Absolutely loved his performance today

In the NFL I think its 2 challenges each coach gets per game that must be reviewed by video.

Why do MOTD give so much to Dyche’s comments about supposed diving. They play his interview moaning about diving and then show some of the incidents he’s unhappy with. The MOTD pundits pretty quickly shot it down but even giving it the air time is what dyche wants.

Do you think if emery moaned about Burnley’s constant fouling the MOTD guys would have given 2-3 highlights of bad, late, nightly fouls including shoving a defender in to an o rushing gk?

I also thought we looked poor at the back. Our players were continually shut down and we struggled to get the ball to the midfielders. In an endeavour to clear our lines we played numerous square balls across the area and this will cost us in the future. We failed to win numerous headers in the box and there was too much tippy tappy 30-40 metres out from the goal we were trying to defend.

Don't think I wasn't happy to get the points but we need a big improvement. As long as we build I will be happy but play so sloppily against Pool and Spurs and we could pay heavily.

Agree with Grantyboy. Ceballos could be a worthy successor to Cazorla. We may not have him after this season. So just enjoy his performances while he's with us.

Both City & Spurs dropped points
We just need to make sure we get the 3, against Spurs.

It's foolhardy to expect a win at Anfield next week but its a good early test that maybe we can get a draw out of. If we were to eek out a win (and I think LFC look more dangerous than City right now), it wouldn't mean we have turned the corner. Top teams lose on occasion....to anyone, including clubs lower than us down the table.

Pépé is going to be a good one. Once he finds his place and in the team. Exciting player.

What a joke motd was, arsenal's most dearest player Pépé doesn't get a highlight section, I saw most of first half but not much of second so was looking forward like thousands of other supporters to seeing how he played, but no they spent more time drooling over you know who.

Anyone see van persies stint as a pundit where he talked about himself leaving arsenal.
Basically he said Arsenal never offered him a new deal so he was forced to look elsewhere!
I just can’t believe that. Van person talked a bit about how he set out the terms and what he thought arsenal needed to do to be competitive but no deal came.
Now if van person went in and said the only way I’m signing a new deal is if you spend £200m to make the team better and you triple my pay....and there is no point offering me anything lower than that....I might believe arsenal never offered him a new deal. But does he expect us to believe that Arsenal decided to not offer a new contract, any kind of contract, to the golden boot winner, captain and best player at the club who only had 12 months left on his deal?
Even if we did want rid, you’d offer a deal to boost his value then sell him.
Nonsense

Van Persie re-writing history. He was my 2nd favorite player after Fabregas when the old stars left. A shame.

Ceballos was 23 in Aug.

Still very young, though, and rather Fabregas-like in his technical ability, sheer audacity and confidence.

What we don't yet know is if he can still produce those kind of performances away from home and against the big teams.

You mean like they did with Ramsay and Sanchez. No meaningful negotiations until closer to the 12 month to go mark- no that can’t be right.

I like the look of Pépé, the way he drops a shoulder and drifts past players. Will need time to adjust to the physicality and pace of the PL but initial signs are very promising.

But the way van persie portrays it was that he would have signed a deal with us if it was offered.
I’m sure arsenal were slow at getting to the table but to suggest arsenal actively wanted rid of Van persie at that time and were 100% happy selling him to Man U for under market value is just not believable

Yes, really exciting to see the raw talent and natural ability to accelerate and glide past a player at ease is very encouraging.
He needs to get up to speed, he messed up a 2v1 at the end which should have sealed the game. I expect him to start v Liverpool. It’s the type of game he was bought for. Away from home, we’ll be under pressure and will need some threat on the counter

If he can keep it up all season then you’d have to hope Madrid are stupid enough to keep chasing gallactico signings or putting their faith in kroos and modric- we might be able to get him permanently

Also this is what an persie wrote on his own website at the time of his departure
“I’ve thought long and hard about it, but I have decided not to extend my contract,”

During the game I was getting frustrated with Burnley’s relative success at pressing us and our reluctance to press them. If their attack can force mistakes from our very technical defence and midfield surely we could do far more damage on their defence who are mainly cloggers. After a while though I realised that Burnley are immune to the press because they don’t play short passes in their own half. If you play long ball football the press is pointless.
However, I really do want to see us press teams who do play it out from the back. Our next game is Liverpool who will be forced to play a gk who is at best a 3/10 with the ball at his feet having lost a gk who is an 8/10 with the ball at his feet. We must must must put pressure on Adrian, chase him down every time, 99 times out of 100 nothing comes of it, but he has a mistake in him every game

To be fair to MOTD it was Ceballos who they devoted their highlights section to. I think that’s understandable as he was the man of the match.

Which is David Luiz was brought in I'd say.

I hate the way MOTD is edited. They frequently omit pieces of footage that warrant showing and some of that is to fit in with whatever dopey point one of their pundits is trying to make. Sometimes there is no aparent reason at all. For example, in the coverage of the Man City game the left out the little run by Bernardo Silva where he had 3 spuds around him and they couldn't get the ball off him. A moment of skill so wonderful that the crowd started cheering. It seems it's more important to subject us to Danny Murphy's "analysis" of Tottenham's defending.

Yes that seems unlikely but why don’t the club come out and reply

We really shouldn't be surprised Caballos is good. Real Madrid recruits quality. Even the players that can't get a game are better than starters at most clubs. Same with Barcelona...with very few exceptions. Sanchez for example. Those two clubs (and City may be on their way there) have too much talent and too few spots.

I'm also really excited about Pépé. I think we may have the second coming of Overmars.

Decent performance yesterday, all things considered. Our defense looked rocky in the first half, but improved in the second. I think the scoreline flattered Burnley a bit, without a couple of excellent saves from their keeper we would've killed the match a lot sooner.

Ceballos looked like everything I hoped for when we signed him. Absolute class. Pépé still looks to be some way off his best, but you can see the potential there. That little nutmeg he did in midfield had the crowd buzzing.

Job done for the first two games. If we can get a point at Anfield it's been a brilliant start to the season.

Hey Rich,
It's early days. So far, it looks like we will be better at dealing with a press than last season but that standard is easy to beat.

We haven't even gotten a settled, preferred XI yet. I think we must give Emery time and in that time, we will make mistakes.

Agreed, Haz. And congrats on getting Ceballos' name right. It's only a few weeks into his Arsenal career, but judging by the forum he's already the most misspelled player in club history. Caballos. Cellabos. Cellobos ... Rog, for the love of God, weave your magic...

I should add: kudos for the 'Ceb-' shortcut you posted yesterday, Rog, but fans of the renegade 'Caballos' spelling are still running wild.

“Cellebaros” was my personal favourite

Same for me. I might be a little overly positive but felt that with a team that haven't played a lot together the odd mistake or gap was bound to happen. So many new a hungry players which opposition know little about gives us an unpredictability. I still wish we didn't regimentally persist with trying to play out from the back under pressure. Try and do that against City or Liverpool and it's asking for trouble and almost giving them a goal handicap because they will take advantage.