Just need Mustafi, mhikitaryan and el Nenny pulled into this crimewave and we should be ok.

Surely only a matter of time before somebody blames Emery for the car jacking attempt

No problems for me either Rog.

One big thing we need to change this season is the attempts on goal.
Last season we were only ranked 11th for shots on goal. This weekend only Leicester had fewer shots on target that us.

Pépé should be a big help to this but we need more from some of our shot shy players.

Nor me.

They’ve changed the rules for this season so that if there’s a hand ball by an attacking player in the immediate build up to a goal it's disallowed. So like Iwobi’s goal against... i forget last season.

Makes sense to me, it hit the guy’s hand and fell right to the goal scorer.

I want consistency. So with VAR in the women’s World Cup most hand balls by defenders resulted in VAR being consulted no matter how far they were from the player kicking the ball. Will that be what the EPL applies or are they sticking with the natural position of the hand even although that seems to vary with who is interpreting it.

ok at my end

I prefer watercolours but having said that you have a fair amount of talent Gaz .... they are very good .

This is crucial. I’ve seen a lot of pundits who just look at our goal totals from last season and say our attack is fine and we just need to improve defensively (I even saw Ian Hollow on deadline day make a really weird point about how we would’ve been better of signing Gary Cahill than Pépé). To me that’s madness, I don’t think anyone who watched us regularly last season can say we looked impressive offensively for any stretch of the season. We just didn’t create enough chances and that is one of the biggest areas we need to improve.

with exception of being Welsh ...............................

Swiss Ramble doing a good explanation on Twitter of our finances and how we could afford to splash out £130m odd this summer.

Interestingly it shows wages off the books at £725k per week, and players bought in at only £495k per week. So £230k saving on wages per week. £12m per year

The excellent Swiss ramble explaining our summers transfer business financially

https://twitter.com/swissramble/status/ ... 27169?s=21

What can I say Pete; you're quite right.

The responsibility of being Welsh is massive, particularly because of the following:

"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have the greatness of being Welsh thrust upon them." (The original William Shakespeare quote.)

Swiss Ramble is of course correct in that there are many different ways to look at transfer spending.

What bothers me is the way the media has been reporting our £45m budget; if we look at what was being said before the summer, not one of them was saying £45m is what we can spend in total on first year installments. In fact I’ve never seen any reporter ever talk about a transfer budget in those terms. Then, when Arsenal goes out and overspends the reported £45m by a lot, they all start talking about installments. They’re mixing up financial terms willy nilly to justify their earlier reporting which was simply based on information that wasn’t correct.

Heard an interview with a guy who was a convict in the same prison as Jeffrey Epstein and said it was virtually impossible to commit suicide if you are on suicide watch. He mentioned how they take every precaution and that the prison has pretty much seen every conceivable means people have used in the pass and you'd have to be a genius and desperate and very quick about your own demise to even have a chance to do it.

Hmmm

There is a good video doing the rounds of Emery's reaction when Willock was shrugged off the ball and then chased back 20 yards to make a recover tackle. Emery celebrated it like a goal

People need to stop complaining, over analysing stuff and get behind the guy for once.

You can see he cares. He never blames the officials, never blames his players or chucks them under a bus even if they are out of order, often makes difficult changes, always speaks with dignity and never complains about the absolute pup he was sold when he joined.

Yesterday that prat who runs Le Grove was getting excited about Emery leaving and Mourinho joining as we now have relations with his agent Mendez. Let me assure you Jose Mourinho would be a disaster for Arsenal, he would waste all our money and leave us 2 years later in a worse state than Wenger.

For the first time in *%^@*** years this season there seems to be a positive feeling at the club. Just enjoy it and if we lose to Liverpool don’t chuck your toys out the pram because we lost a game.

He wasn't on suicide watch boner.

Anyone else marginally interested in the Super Cup as I am? I may watch it if I can't find anything of interest on TV like 'The Joys of Watching Paint Dry'.

Debut goal for Nketiah for Leeds in the cup tonight

Not watching the game (until I saw your post I had no idea it was even being played). How has he played?

I didn’t watch I’m afraid. Reports said it was a classic right place right time tap in finish. Exactly what Eddie does well.

With ties to Trump, Clinton and a royal as well as many of the 1% and the fact it was said he kept meticulous notes on his comings (no pun intended) and going. Something is amiss and we may never know what really happened because it reaches too high. Just like how the 9/11 commission couldn't find the person who vetoed watching the terrorists who were taking flying lessons in America.

If the same exact scenario happened in Russia or China, it would automatically be assumed and fairly accepted as fact the government engineered it all. But America gets a pass from logic and reason.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/latest-frenc ... 46357.html
The Latest: 1 of Epstein's guards not a corrections officer

I think fans are going to be a bit over optimistic and I understand why. We had a decent summer bringing in new blood. Nothing less than 3 points will be tolerated by most gooners come the weekend.
This squad is still a work in progress and all the new 'moving parts' have to be blended into a smooth running machine.

I am not going to expect a lot right now. I just want us to be competitive. It will take a bit for Emery to get the right XI and an effective system with that XI.

Watching City and Liverpool battle it out may be interesting. City have only failed to to be out of the top 3 once since 2011. Its the kind of season by season form Man Utd used to have in the 90s and first few years of the 00s.
If City do win it this season and next, the EPL will start to look like a joke corrupted by money. My other fear is our unbeaten record which is very hard to do with the league as it is, but not impossible with what City have.
Liverpool have one of their best sides since some time but when you can't win the PL with 97 points, while losing only once and your contender has all the money in the world, you can only stay competitive to challenge for the title for so long.

We may start seeing Tottenham fall off as well (a welcomed thing). They have the addition of the stadium to contend with, their biggest stars looking at possibly leaving.

Spurs have Vertonghen, alderweireld and Eriksen in the last 12 months of their deals.
Alderweireld was available for £25m this summer, teams obviously didn’t go for it because he’s free in 12 months, or foreign clubs can agree that deal in 6 months.
Those 3 have been mainstays and a huge part of Spurs’ recent rise.
Rose also wants out. Poch is a great manager but as we found there’s only so long you can pull bargain quality players out of the hat.
Spurs wage bill is about half of the other top 6, when they make £50-60m signings those players don’t sign based on Spurs normal wages. They will be some of the top earners which sets the benchmark for any new signing and any contract renewals. We’ve actually reduced our wage bill this year, I think Spurs will see theirs rise at a quicker rate than any of the top 6 mainly because they were so far behind in the first place

Reine-Adelaide is close to signing for Lyon for up to 30m euros. It seems we have a 10% sell on which is handy but disappointing not to get a bigger piece of that considering we sold him for £1-2m last year.

These young players only ever really get their value if they are playing full time football - Bielik being a good case. So for Arsenal to get the big value when selling these players they need to expose them to first team football. If that is with us then we run the risk of an inexperienced player costing us points. We need to manage the loan system better, and ensure that players going on loan aren't just running down their contract. We had that problem with Szcesny who spent 2 years on loan but his contract was running down all the time. I expect Nketiah has already added a few million to his price by scoring for Leeds last night on loan - it just gets him noticed and shows that he can do it at a big club (Leeds are still the biggest club outside the prem I think)

Hello Rich,

What is interesting is that I've read a lot of rumbling among sperz fans in various forums about Poch. It's easy to forget that he has never won a trophy but its the best spurs run in terms of the league since forever it seems. They have finished 6th or better every season since 2010 and runner up once.

Trying to be as objective as possible, is Poch a failure or a success? My personal opinion is he is a resounding success with a lack of a trophy being the only negative. Some would argue that managers are judged on trophies and there is a lot of obvious merit to that. I think it has to be measured in stages. He's been there since 2014, its "only" been 5 years in a very difficult league. He had to get to top 4 first stage, now he has to start being judged on trophies. He's gotten to 2 finals and 3 semi finals. The pressure for a trophy has to be balanced with what you said about the stars possibly wanting away, wage bill and the financial pressure of the stadium renovation.

Unless they can bring in someone like an Allegri, Simeone unless they can bring in a top flight manager. If they have reached that stature. I am not so sure.

That sell on clause is a business all its own. I wish I could employ that when if I sell my home.

Trailers don't go for much so pointless.

Was this the right decision?

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... nsfer-News
The reason Arsenal and Juventus did not agree Daniele Rugani deal as Unai Emery chased ace

ARSENAL failed to sign Daniele Rugani because they were unwilling to commit to buying the Juventus defender at the end of a loan spell, reports in Italy claim.

Unai Emery put Rugani on his transfer wish list this summer as he looked to bolster his defence ahead of the 2019/20 campaign.

But it was David Luiz who rocked up at the Emirates instead as Arsenal hammered out a shock £8m deadline day deal with Chelsea.

Rugani now looks set for Roma, with talks between their sporting director Gianluca Petrachi, Juventus chief Fabio Paratici and potentially the centre-back’s agent taking place on Tuesday.

Yes - couldn't get on for several days.

No, that one definitely down to Arsene or Gordon Brown...

....or David Dein
PS:
We are still within the statute of limitations for blaming Arsene, omoh. I personally plan to blame him for one or two things...when appropriate.
'

I had an interesting conversation this afternoon with a Liverpool fan and his son. After some light teasing about never winning the PL, I asked him if he could exchange on the CL's for a league title would he? He laughed, said no. Why? Because he thinks they will win one eventually and likely in the next few years with Klopp. He also said 'winning the league is national, but the CL is global. Everyone knows you won it globally. Good point. His son said he would exchange it because he's never seen them win a title. Too young. He then flipped it and asked me if I would exchange our 'invincible' season for a CL? I had to think long and hard and after some back and forth in my mind, I said no. He asked why. And I said, I think we will win one in my lifetime. Not in the next few years but eventually. I think winning the CL is easier than unbeaten in the season.

Would any of you, in hindsight, exchange the invincible season for a CL trophy?

Someone hit me again; I can still hear him.

No way - it is a far greater achievement to have done what only one other English team did before. Somebody wins the ECL every year, and one day we will, though I'll most likely not be around to see it.

It's kinda sad to say you may not be around to see it omoh. The Boston Red Sox went from 1918 to 2004 between world series. There was a documentary about it. I hate the "BoSox" but was moved by people who visited fathers and grandfathers who lived their lives seeing the team reach finals and never win. I certainly hope to see us win in my lifetime. The CL as the saying goes 'anything can happen in a cup competition'. 2004 was our gild edged chance I think. Had we just had a better 2nd half against Chelsea, the road to the final was not too difficult considering the competition. All the top teams were out of it.

Anyway, thinking about it more, the 'invincible' season was an entire season with drama each week. And I feel personally connected seeing one of the matches. Still have the program and ticket stub. It's with my trust documents, insurance forms, and other important things.

It will break my heart if City does it, especially in their present state of being economically on steroids.

Of course AG I hope I am wrong and that I do see us win the big-eared jug. I suppose if I see it happen in say 2040, beating Dartford in the Nou Camp on penalties, I'll be alright with that. A 90 year-old with eyesight still intact - that'll do me. Hopefully by then we may have achieved Brexit too, though I doubt it.

On the Invincible season we perhaps only now come to appreciate what we were given by that magnificent team? At the time they were so good it was almost no big surprise they went unbeaten! Yet it was so hard to do as great sides like United, Chelsea and City have discovered since.

The state of football finances today is so ridiculous I can't get too bent out of shape over it anymore. I hope City win the ECL as I have always liked them ever since they were managed by one of our greats, Joe Mercer. Well before you saw the light of day I lived for a while in Manchester (Uuugghh!) and regularly watched Book, Summerbee, Bell, Lee, Oakes etc. What a side.