I think we would be playing Jesus as a wideman and Mahrez gets in ahead of Iwobi and Mhikitaryan every single day of the week.

It's a 3 horse race for the 4th spot. Man Utd fans I know think its already a foregone conclusion. Tottenham are playing well enough without Kane so they should lock up 3rd at a minimum. We're not going to make up 10 points.

So, can we beat both Chelsea and Man Utd to 4th? I think we have the better manager of the 3 but not the better players. Specifically in defense. And defense is what is going to get any of the 3 sides to 4th.

Interesting? Shearer said Aguero is better than Henry was. Farcical and self-serving comment. Henry was easily the best striker of the PL era. Far far more than just a goal-scorer. Aguero is a great player but several levels below Henry. I'd put that knob Shearer ahead of Aguero too.

The irony is that we probably have the easiest run of those chasing fourth spot but probably the weakest team.

How can Aaron Ramsey be earning 400k a week?

It just shows the ridiculous farce that football now is. I mean he's a decent player but I'm not even sure he's good enough to be anything more than a squad player at Juve.

They are going to regret that. I bet they end up doing an “Özil” and dropping him to try and force him out in the end. There’s few players on that money in the world and if he’s on a 4 year deal that contract is worth 83 million, just insane money. I can’t imagine what will happen when they start getting pissed off with him trying to pretend he’s a centre forward all the time.

https://www.arsenaltrust.org/news/2017/ ... for-201718

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Looks pretty bleak (thanks to Kroenke of course).

Now Marcotti suggesting Ramsey is only on 250k a week which sounds more plausible.

Interesting to see the stick and struggles Jorginho is taking/having at the moment. Teams are shutting down any passing in to him and Chelsea struggle. Jorginho excelled in a high pressing Napoli team where he probably had a bit more time and space to dictate play with metronomic passing. It feels that with so many high pressing teams that the ideal deep lying midfielder almost needs the attributes of a tricky winger - good in tight areas, dribble past the press, direct etc

Really wish we could have had a few more years of seeing Cazorla in this position

We’re being linked with Grimaldo the benfica left back. He’s been on some top teams radar before but not made the move. 23 years old, cane through the Barca youth system. 5 goals and 5 assists this season, top level experience and champions league experience with Benfica. On the face of it he ticks all the boxes - this is the sort of signing we should be targeting

Where did that figure come from?

Could it be that that is what he's costing them with a substantial part of that figure making up the fact that there was no initial outlay?

Yes, the £400K sounds like just taking his wage and adding in all the 'huge' signing-on fee that comes with bosman transfers then diving it up over the duration of the contract, slightly misleading to call it £400K a week but it suits making a big headline story (and possibly a PR agenda for a club beginning with A).

Whateva...

David Ornstein at bbc who usually gets his info from the club.

I think recently the club have been giving incorrect figures out to make it look like it was impossible for us to keep some of these players when we screwed up the contract.

Saw this stat

Biggest overperformance in Expected Goals
Spurs +13.6 goals

Biggest overperformance in Expected Goals Against
Spurs -6.6

I firmly disagree that our style of play is less easy on the eye now. We do get the ball forward more quickly these days, even if it isn't as quickly as would be ideal. Hence I see that as more entertaining than the even slower build up dross we saw in Wenger's last years.

Regarding the defence, you may disagree but I think we're missing Mertesacker. I presume you saw that research I did which proved we conceded fewer goals when he played, and when he and Koscielny were together our defensive record was sometimes favouribly comparable to other top teams. I recall you once said that we've had defensive problems for many years. I showed that wasn't the case. Our defensive frailties took off when Mertesacker stopped playing either through injury or retirement.

As I pointed out before, we need to remember that our greater defensive solidarity with Mertesacker came despite not having a defensive midfielder of Torreira's quality. Some may claim without any defensive midfielder at all, let alone one at Torreira's level. In short, I believe the balance of evidence supports my view that we miss Mertesacker's organisational abilities. If he was still playing, my money would be on us not conceding as many goals as has been the case.

I think they got ok money for Matic, I suppose they thought they were spending the money on a younger upgrade in Jorginho - which after seeing him at Napoli and seeing Matic struggle at Man U seemed the right move.
One of chelsea’s big mistakes this year has been playing their two best players, kante and hazard, in not their natural positions.
And they should have bitten Barca’s hand off when they were offering £50m plus Malcom for Willian!

I firmly agree with you here. Look, I'm not going to claim Mertesacker was as strong a leader as Adams or McLintock. But he was far more of a leader than any of our current players who have had the armband this season.

I think over the last few games Bernard our football hasn’t been as good. I would suggest prior to the injuries hitting and our change in formation our football was hugely improved from last season.

Attacking with pace, almost zero dithering on the ball. Pressing and working far harder. It was just much better and anyone suggesting it wasn’t isnt correct.

It’s just over the last few games with no Özil or Ramsey we don’t appear to be able to control a midfield anymore and look less assured in possession. I think the injuries have taken a toll, the formation changed hasn’t helped and energy levels are diminished as players take on more and more games.

RIP Gordon Banks

A cross between Grimandi and Ronaldo... can't wait!

I've been asked recently overseas, what made the country change (from the Obama days). I think the country got exposed.

Hoping but not expecting PSG to derail the Man Utd train. As I said before, interesting quandary the Man Utd management have in the summer perhaps. Do they continue with OGS if he maintains the current form (allowing for losses obviously for the pedants) or do they go for yet another big name manager such as Allegri (if they can pry him loose from The Old Lady) or Zindane or someone else?

Exactly the same as Brexit.

Trump and Brexit voters enabled racism and you have weird militant alt right types everywhere now sharing misinformation, encouraging hatred and all sorts.

You have james Goddard and his militant yellow vest racists all round Westminster screaming at people at the moment if they don’t look “British” enough.

Shameful

I’ve never said he’s a bad player just very inconsistent. He’s scored decent goals but only reached double figures in a season twice. For me I think he goes down as a great signing, I’ll always be thankful but I’d always say he was way too inconsistent, unable to dominate big games and probably wouldn’t have got much game time if he was at another top 4 club

If you were to give me the option of signing in their prime one of Cesc, Ramsey, Nasri or Cazorla. Then Ramsey would be my last choice if I’m honest and judging it on footballing ability.

With managers generally staying at clubs for 3 years or less now it is vitally important that the guys who hire and fire the managers establish a club philosophy. Otherwise you end up with different managers signing different players and none of them fit with the new man. Man U lost it after Fergie by employing drastically different managers with different philosophies.
At arsenal my view is the philosophy should be:
Dedication to fast passed attacking football
Vested interest in scouting and purchasing the worlds most promising up and coming young players
Developing our own internal youth players with the realisation that most wont make it but can be given a fantastic football education and sold for a good profit
Transfer targets should have pace and power

In fairness, Rich, 99% of clubs want that. There's only a handful of clubs who can chase the superstars.

Bad news developing. Looks like Man U are going to have no European distractions in their bid to finish above us.

I'm enjoying it. I can hear the sound of a bubble bursting.

And this without Neymar and Cavani.

It is fun to watch. That’s for sure. May well end the hopes of OGS longer term.

But I would like them to have a congested calendar.

Oddly they seemed to fall apart as soon as Sanchez came on, but that’s probably just coincidence.

Bye bye Pogba.

PSG were better throughout but really lifted it for about 15 mins in the 2nd half and looked miles ahead of Man U. Sanchez is a shadow of the player that lit up our side 2 years ago.

My point is that we don’t seem to have that identity at the moment. If we ignore the super rich who can make moves for ready made stars then there are plenty of clubs with a clear identity, maybe we’re just struggling with the transition but I don’t see any of this in place yet.

All the more frustrating that we should have taken £60m for him when we had the chance. It would have been the deal of the year considering his form, and a deal that was pretty damn good considering the corner we backed ourself in to

I agree Per was a better Captain than any others we currently have.

They were always going to be a bit too many for United, even if they had to scrape the barrel and use the likes of Draxler and di Maria ...

I agree with LTG that they will probably take this one on the chin and it'll improve their chances of getting 4th.

But it is highly enjoyable none the less. It would be lovely to see a full strength PSG absolutely massacre them in the return leg, mind you. Mbappe is a bit special.

Apparently Arsenal are commissioning another statue and are letting the fans choose from a shortlist - sounds good so far. The shortlist is
1. Ramsey's celebration to beat Hull in the FA cup final
2. Giroud's scorpion kick
3. Walcott and Mertesacker's 'bump' celebration

That is a bit of a sad choice of 3. Considering we have statues of Henry, Bergkamp, Adams and Chapman. I realise some are in action from great moments but not trophy winning moments but they are all in the top 5 or so Arsenal players of all time.

If that is the choice of 3 I'd rather we didn't do one. Or if it is just about great moments rather than great players do one of Thomas flicking the ball past Grobbelar

Imagine what could have been if Wenger had managed to persuade Mbappe to sign for us for £100k before he signed his pro contract with Monaco........he probably wouldn't still be with us but we'd be £150m richer

It’s a wind up Rich. I know the bloke who put out the original tweet. He’s winding everyone up.

maybe a statue of Silent Stan rubbing his hands together with a big grin on his face

Or more likely we would have let him run down his contract and watch him leave for free