They’ve said the ‘deal sheets’ were submitted. It should get done

Completely forgot about Chelsea's transfer ban. They couldn't really afford to lose a defender right now since they have identified that as the position most in need of strengthening. Apparently, Luiz and Lampard had a falling out.

Well, he needs to start against Chelsea for sure.

That is most encouraging. Both from a financial perspective and a club morale/motivation one.

And it has. A good window.

Right, over to you Unai. You've been backed to the hilt, now you need to show us you whether you are the real deal or not. No excuses.

On paper one of the best windows we've ever had. Quality signings in key areas and mainly youthful ones too.

Of course, there are no guarantees and players may fail to settle or prove to have been overhyped but if things pan out well we may have lifted ourselves to the next level. Not City or Liverpool's level just yet but hopefully strong contenders for a third place finish and closing the gap on the top two.

Fingers crossed.

Astonishing to think of the player turnover since the winter 2017 transfer window.
Roughly speaking, and in terms of genuine first team squad players I make it that those 4 transfer windows have seen 15 players out and 13 players in.
Best 11 now
Leno
Bellerin-Sokratis-Luiz-Tierney
Xhaka-Ceballos
Pepe-Ozil-Aubameyang
Lacazette

Second 11
Martinez
AMN-Chambers-Holding-Kolasinac
Torreira-Guendouzi
Nelson-Willock-mkhitaryan
Martinelli

Not sure I agree with your first eleven. Mine would be Leno, Bellerin, Sokratis, Luiz, Tierney, Torreira, Guendouzi, Ceballos, Pépé, Lacazette, Aubameyang.

We should get Raul Sanllehi to handle the Brexit negotiations.

That would be mine too.

I was going by what Emery will pick. An at his best Özil would be in the starting 11, but I’m minded to agree with your 11. At the start of the season it wouldn’t surprise me if Willock starts

Liverpool have been widely praised for waiting for Van Dijk when they could sign him when they wanted. If Arsenal’s main CB targets weren’t available at the right price, then I’m glad we’ve not splurged £30-40m on a ‘maybe’ CB. Signing Luiz for £8m on a 2 year deal is a very good stop gap.

Some really good deals although the proof will be in how they perform particularly in the defence. Will be very interesting as to how we set up and play this week-end. Mustafi would still be my reserve in the defensive middle. I am not sure Luiz is much of an improvement but I recognise that defensive combinations work not because you have the best players but because players gel together and work well in combination with each other. lets hope we get some more cohesive defending.

Newcastle, Burnley, Liverpool and Spurs in the next month.

So predictions for this year:

Liverpool, Man City, Spurs, Arsenal, Man U and Chelsea in that order

So I suppose this report in the Metro must be wrong. proof will be in when he starts and how many games he misses. one thing is for sure he better not play for Scotland before he plays for us.

Ghttps://metro.co.uk/2019/08/08/kieran- ... -10542835/

Apparently from comments on here he should be a cross between Maldini, Roberto Carlos and Breitner so looking forward to him playing for us.

Arsenal above Spurs for me. They seemed to skate under the radar of criticism but barely performed better than us last year.

Finally, some reinforcements for the defensive side of the team.

I believe Luiz will be a marked improvement over Mustafi, and will not mess up as much. Tierney has always performed at a very low level league, whose only tough challenge is from Rangers. Hopefully Emery will bring out another level or two of him for the EPL.

Bye bye Iwobi, mixed about you, though you would have sat on the bench most times.

Optimistic we will be higher than Spurs. The window is great, and Emery now has the players to work his wonders.

Feel Iwobi leaving is quite sad.

Clearly an effort to balance the books because we couldn’t shift el Nenny and mhikitaryan. Some of the most average players we have seen. Always played with his heart.

I’d be interested in seeing a net spend calculation for the club for this window as it won’t be far off the 45 million budget that was being quoted.

Despite this being a decent window I’m still not sure if we are making enough investment to get back to the top. A twitter ITK type was suggesting we will spend the Iwobi money in January on Upmanecano or whatever his name is. Whilst I’d like to believe this is true the jury is still out a little bit for me. Just a little.

I wish both Iwobi and Jenkinson all the best for the future and acknowledge that both of them always tried their best IMO.

As for Jenkinson you got to live the dream -70 appearances for your team - well done and I hope it goes well at Forest.

When Bellerin returns we'll have two quality book ends at full back. Just need to get the central defense sorted.

The additions of Luiz and Ceballos will certainly help us keep the ball better in dangerous areas. If you have the ball you can’t concede.

Pépé has been signed to help us on the counter attack in away games. Too often last year we carried barely any threat away from home and you knew if we conceded first we’d lose 1-0.

Tierney seems a good purchase at left back. Kolasinac and Monreal both have weaknesses that mean they aren’t what we need in a back 4.

Iwobi going is sad only because he’s a youth product. But he has only ever scored 3 league goals a season for us. It also really opens a pathway to first team football for Nelson, Saka and martinelli

The next aim must be to shirt the remainder of the dead wood, mkhitaryan, mustafi, elneny....and then you need to see if Özil can recapture some form. Including him in that list and you’re shifting another £700k per week, or £36m a year off the wage bill and drastically lowering the age of the squad.

Hi Gaz, granty,

They've made some good signings as well. If they keep Eriksen I think they will be very decent again.

Their run to the CL final probably took its toll on their league results for a while.

Hi Rich,

I think Willock should start and probably will alongside Xhaka. The likes of Torreira, Ceballos, Pépé and Guendouzi are perhaps still a little away from full match fitness after their summer breaks.

Quite right. It’s important to acknowledge how difficult it is to take over after someone who has been at the club for 20 years, and in the middle of a pretty substantial re-organization, but Emery still has a lot to prove. He has been firmly backed now, so let’s see how he performs. First thing I will look for is what he decides our starting formation and first choice eleven is. Last season there was way too much swapping, it felt like a rarity to start three games in a row with the same lineup and that surely doesn’t help players perform.

If Ceballos was a permanent transfer and we got a better central defender than Luiz it would’ve been hard not to give us full marks for the transfer window. As things stand now, it’s still not far off from perfect. On paper we’ve improved our defense, midfield and attack, we’ve added a couple of young players who looks to have huge potential, and we’ve gotten rid of some players who doesn’t have a place in the squad anymore.

The overhaul we’ve managed in just one summer is spectacular, and even more importantly I think the club has won a lot of fans over on their side again. There is genuine optimism surrounding the club now, which we haven’t seen in years and I don’t think that should be underestimated.

Can't wait to see our new look side all fit and fully integrated. Will obviously take a while but it should be exciting times.

Really have high hopes for Nelson this season, with the squad as it stands he’ll get to play. But I think a lot of Arsenal fans are overrating our teenagers. I’ve seen people suggest that Iwobi and Mkhitaryan can easily be replaced by the likes of Saka, Martinelli and Smith-Rowe and I think those are ridiculous expectations for players who have barely played any first team football at all. It’s one thing to make a few good runs and crosses in a pre-season friendly, another thing entirely to be relied upon to contribute in the Premier League grind.

The window has far exceeded even the most optimistic fan's expectations and I don't think anyone can now accuse the club of not showing enough ambition.

Those who participated in the WeCareDoYou campaign are claiming this forced the Kroenke's hands but I think that's bollocks. Most of the deals will have been in planning for weeks if not months.

If anything the WeCareDoYou campaigners should issue an apology.

Very little said about spurs now having Vertonghen, Alderweireld AND Eriksen in the final 12 months of their contract. In 6 months all 3 can sign pre-contract agreements with foreign clubs and leave for free. To replace those 3 mainstays of Spurs team for eh last 5 years would take £150m in today’s market for players of equal quality

It is easy to get carried away with the kids, as I know from past experiences with the likes of Miyaichi and Wellington.

Willock looks ready, Nelson will probably get some minutes here and there as a back-up but I'm not sure Martinelli will get much of a look-in this season barring perhaps some minutes in the Europa League or cups.

Agree completely. I don't have a problem with the fans venting their frustration, but thought both the timing and the message was weird. To complain about how nothing changes when we're right in the middle of the biggest re-organization the club has seen in decades just comes off as strange to me, and the notion that they are responsible for the club signing Pépé is laughable actually.

Hi Haz, yes it is definitely easy to get too excited by young players.
My slight worry for Nelson is he’s primary position is the same as Pépé. I think if Nelson was a left winger he might get more of a chance especially given Iwobi has gone.
My hope for the players like Nelson, Saka and Martinelli is although they are young I would feel a bit more excited about them coming off the bench for the last 15 minutes of a game we desperately need a goal in as opposed to Mkhitaryan. Mkhi is consistently average for us, those young players are more likely to have a 3/10 impact sub game or a 9/10 impact sub game. That is the sort of risk I’d rather take if we’re chasing a game than bringing on a 6/10 Mkhi

I think even this is too much to ask of them at this point, and I think Mkhitaryan is a lot better than he's given credit for. Very inconsistent, and can waste attacks by missing very simple passes at times, but he creates a lot of chances. 6 goals and 4 assists in 19 starts is decent return for what is essentially a squad player. To be honest, I think his biggest problem is his wage.

Here you go, TG. 2nd highest net spend in the league behind the bizarre carry-on at Villa.

Me too, but it don't expect them to gel immediately. We will have a couple hiccup matches before it happens. We are still a work in progress.

It turned out to be a spectacular transfer window for us. Some contrast to how most of us felt at the end of last season. For me, the biggest risk is Pépé. He is instantly the star of the team and might need time to find his feet. I'm very happy with Luiz. Yes he makes silly errors and can be lazy-minded but he is exceptionally talented and is a big big personality - something we lack. As it happens, I suspect Tierney will end up being the best transfer of the summer for us.

How is Spurs only £70 odd million, ndombele was £55-60m, lo Celso was meant to be £55-60m and the lad from Leeds for £10-12m

I find it strange that so many journalists are lining up to say that they are really unsure of Luiz signing for us. They note that it is a good price but also that he is mistake ridden and will cost us.
The reason it is strange is when I read season reviews of Chelsea last year or even season previews of Chelsea this year I didn’t read a peep about Luiz being a liability in chelsea’s Defence and how they were going to struggle because they couldn’t sign anyone to replace him

Well that was all pretty positive, wasn't it?

Shame about Iwobi. It's always sad to see a home-grown player leave but realistically, we can't be too critical of a £35m price-tag given that he never really kicked on they way we all hoped. That's good business.

If I'm being critical, I'd say we haven't addressed the need for defensive shielding in midfield. I know we have Torreira but after a bright start, he disappointed. He finished the season like a little lost schoolboy.

Luiz is better than we've got. Sure he makes mistakes but so do all the rest. He still improves us and he has character. I'm really looking forward to liking him.

I don't know too much about the others so I'll reserve judgement, but I am really optimistic. We're turning into Emery's team with Emery's players and I'm really looking forward to seeing us play the Emery way. I really think he has a plan.

Lastly, there's still plenty of time to offload some deadwood. Nobody in the PL was ever going to take Elneny, Mkhitaryan or Mustafi but there may still be realistic options abroad. And Özil to DC United??? I can only hope.

Luiz could be deployed there. Arguably he is a better defensive midfielder than CB.

That table is on Sky sports. Looks like they never updated it for the Lo Celso signing.