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.

Do they need to? Van Persies own email to the world made it clear he'd made the call to leave. Contract on table or not he stated that he left due to differences of opinion over the club direction.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk › teams
Robin van Persie's official statement to Arsenal fans - Telegraph

Sorry I missed that one, Ash! I'll add it to the list.

Glad you liked the nickname I created for Ceballos

I'm not sure, McQuilkie. There have been some classics in the past - Wiltshire, Carzola and the truly wonderful Yaya Sanomo.

Yaya Sanomo - that's quite poetic, dec. And, thankfully, Carzola lives on to this day, courtesy of one of our more eccentric forum members.

Every time that I see his name I think of onions as in Cebollas.

Haven’t yet seen anyone come up with that variant fortunately.

With Ceballos’ great performance in a no.10 / no.8 position and the Xhaka missing what now is our best 11 if everyone is fit?
It might be a toss up between holding and Sokratis to partner Luiz
Guendouzi and Ceballos play in midfield, who is the 3rd midfielder? Özil? Torreira? Xhaka? Willock?
Front 3 must be Pépé, Aubameyang, Lacazette even though I don’t think either Aubameyang/Lacazette are as good out wide

Will be interesting to see our first Europa League team of the season

I hadn't realized he ended up at Derby. 38! How time flies.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/49386282

Ashley Cole: Ex-Arsenal, Chelsea and England full-back retires

Should that be Coal - just to prove that no name is immune.

Cole was at LA Galaxy prior to Lampard luring him away to join Derby.

Some great options in midfield now, and it's hard to say who should be our main starters without seeing how they work together. I'd be tempted to start with Ceballos, Xhaka and Guendozi against Liverpool. Torreira doesn't look like he's 100% match fit yet, and Willock is definitely the odd man out for me at this point. He has shown incredible promise so far but should not be starting for Arsenal this early in his career.

Thought Guendozi had an understated but very good performance against Burnley, taking a backseat to Ceballos who had the ball a lot. Guendozi had close to a 95% pass accuracy and more interceptions than anyone on the team. Very solid.

Well I would say same, however as politely as I could. Same could be applied if you're at a prominent, but stable, company. Being in high upper management with said company 8-10 years. Have provided solid aptitude encompassing broad areas of expertise, while maintaining competiveness in a structured environment. Now you want to expand your responsibilities, add new fresh personnel, broaden your field of expertise. Yet, your current company tells you that it isn't a possibilty right now, but maybe within 2-3 years. All they offer is continued annual salary increases, and whatever bonuses/recognition, depending on continued above calibre output to stay with current company. Not good enough. Along comes a multi-billion €£$ company with worldwide enterprises, wanting your vision and expertise. Offers you a project manager position, oversee continued international expansion, manage-supervise your own department, have 2 assistants to handle domestic operations. Well you have to as politely as possible state why you're resigning from your present company. Reasons are numerous. Same with RVP. Club couldn't or wouldn't provide or match his ambitions & expectations, so he said bye. Easier for him to say he wasn't offered a new deal from the club.
Apologies for the long post peeps.

For me when everyone is fit my starting eleven would be Leno, Bellerin, Tierney, Luiz, Sokratis, Torreira, Guendouzi, Cellabos, Pépé, Aubameyang, Lacazette.

If we were playing a top side away I could understand an argument for dropping Lacazette for Xhaka to make midfield more solid and still leave us with Pépé and Aubameyang for quick breaks when we need pace. Cellabos gets in on his performance yesterday. The hard part for him is keeping it up. If he doesn’t I reserve the right to change my selection in a few weeks. I’m not even writing Özil off yet to replace him.

But I think the squad is really strong. From players not in my starting eleven above, the squad includes Martinez, Maitland-Niles, Monreal, Kolasinac, Holding, Chambers, Mustafi, Özil, Xhaka, Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Willock, Nelson, Martinelli. That’s one hell of a squad.

I admit I haven’t seen much of Martinez. I’ll be happily surprised if he is at Čech’s level last season, but let’s hope. Elneny may still leave, and I don’t think that will weaken us. Mustafi might also go, but he’s always struck me as having a good attitude (he went to the game yesterday to support us) and if he stays, then I’ve no problem with it.