He comes back next season, and one of Lacazette or Aubameyang will be gone. Or Aubameyang can operate in the wings. Overall, looking very good for the forward line. All 3 of them are effective goal scorers, and have the energy to get past their men.

He comes back next season, and one of Lacazette or Aubameyang will be gone. Or Aubameyang can operate in the wings. Overall, looking very good for the forward line. All 3 of them are effective goal scorers, and have the energy to get past their men.

Stoke and Middlesborough are 2 teams I hope to see go further down. Boro because Pulis is manager, dislike his style.

https://www.caughtoffside.com/2019/08/2 ... liverpool/

Positive news? Depending on which Özil turns up.
I suspect he will be better charged to perform at his optimum because of the improved personnel around him.

I know some on the forum believe that it is not healthy to hold grudges but it still works for me. I understand your mindset.

I hear ya, I'm not a big Pulis fan either. I despise fat Sam way more than Pulis so I want any Allardyce led team to do badly.
He has personal animus towards Wenger. It was deeply personal to him and its probably because Wenger was a foreign manager who did very well and fat Sam blames him in no small part to the trend at that time to hire foreign managers for top spots (and even lower spots) instead of British managers.

Pulis used brutish methods against us and I agree deserves our negative attitude towards him. Mourinho I hated but since that Mourinho, Ferguson, Wenger love in, in Wenger's last season, I am not as anti Mourinho as I was because he showed some sense of humanity...lol...and life/karma, call it what you will, has done a job on him already.

Frimpong buried himself. Frimpong and before him Pennant, had inflated egos and lacked the maturity early on and created their own issues.

https://www.goal.com/g00/en/news/he-tol ... i10c.dv=16

The former Gunners team-mates were far from friends at the Emirates and their relationship only deteriorated from there
Former Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong has accused Samir Nasri of being a bully and declared he'll never respect the Frenchman as a player.

While , Frimpong worked his way through the Gunners youth ranks before making his Premier League debut for the club in 2011.

It was there that he'd rub shoulders with Nasri and the two players very quickly came to dislike one another.

Not any more he isn’t - Jonathan Woodgate is Boro manager now

I think the key to getting the best out of Özil is having central midfielders who can break the lines and get the ball to him quickly, Özil finds those pockets of spaces between the lines. His best season was with Cazorla deeper finding him and meaning Özil didn’t have to drop deep to get the ball and still have 8 players in front of him and the goal. Could Ceballos be that player? Could Luiz even do this?

Özil seemed to have worked best in Spain when he didn't have to do much defensive duties. I think he would have flourished with Vieira or any ball winner. Vieira initiated countless goals winning the ball in midfield and getting it to Bergkamp or someone else who had an eye for a pass. After a while, the players could tell when Vieira was about to win the ball and were ready for a break. Seeing him do it in numerous practices and games they had a sense for it.

Özil needs someone like that.

Central defence is arguably the weakest part of what I consider a generally strong squad. Luiz is quite possibly our best central defender at the moment. I’m thus not sure we should be making central defence even weaker by moving our best central defender into midfield, if that’s what you’re suggesting.

I'd also see how Caballos and Özil work together.

No.

Fair point, LTG, but AG has managed to misspell Cazorla's surname for the greater part of a decade, so I think we probably need to just let this go...

I think Caballos are a traditional Chilean trouser, as in 'nice pair of Caballos, senor'. I'm sure Daz could confirm.

I have no idea why people keep suggesting this

We have 3 anchoring midfielders in the squad already and playing anymore than 2 of them at any one time unbalances the side. unless there’s an injury crisis of epic proportions it’s not happening.

I'm worried about a thrashing having to face Liverpool so early. LFC looks like they haven't skipped a beat since last season. I'd like a few more games under our belt where we get a settled XI first and some semblance of an effective system going. But it is what it is.

And then Tottenham as well soon after, Man Utd in a little over a month.

Hoping to see us step up to the challenge. Fingers crossed.

No, I mean a central defender who can step out of the line and play a fast, aggressive pass in to Özil’s feet. No need to move Luiz in the def-mid for him to be able to do this

Probably because he is the best long passer at the club and a better tackler than all of our midfielders. He is needed far more at centre back though. We are in reasonable shape in central midfield.

He’s a better tackler than Torreira ? Or a better long passer than Xhaka ?

Big claim.

One should take care. Saying 'nice pair of ****, senor' (insert Spanish word you don't know meaning of) could get you into el conflicto, if not la desgracia.

Caballos actually means horses, according to google, so you won't cause offense in this case (albeit they might consider you off your rocker).

So it is happening then.

Not really. He's a very talented footballer. His weakness has always been his concentration. He became a bit of a joke figure as we all love to watch Chelsea players make mistakes and there was the catastrophic game against Germany in the world cup semi. Excellent striker of a football though.

Thanks for the update. Where did he go to?

As long as the ball breaking out of defence does not land with Xhaka. He is too slow and tends to dilly dally just for the sake of it. And sometimes, comes up with a poorly weighted pass causing the entire defence to back-pedal. Except him, because he is too slow in the head to react immediately.

Hodd,

How is the mood around the grounds now that we have these new faces in?

I don't hold grudges.

My father used to hold grudges though. I'll never forgive him for that.

Quite a few media reports telling us Emery has told Elneny and Mustafi they need to leave.

Great news if true.

If he achieved this it would be a real achievement. The momentum for change at the club will make a real difference. Whether Emery is still with us to enjoy the changes is unknown. I can say that even if we didn't get top 4 this year I would be disappointed but I would still give him another year.

Agreed.

Interesting view from Keown. Trying to emulate Barca is no crime IF you have the money to get the type of player that can pull that off. I think there are other issues regarding Wenger and his lack of success.

https://www.goal.com/en/news/wenger-tri ... 6txnd3rli3

‘Wenger tried too hard to make Arsenal like Barcelona’ – Emery trying to get balance back, says Keown

Glad to see Emery finally getting rid of two players who simply shouldn't be playing for us.

Don't think he has another gig - I've heard his voice as a pundit on the radio recently

Haven't been to Colney recently, but the mood is very upbeat at Hale End - not least because of the academy boys doing well in the 1st team.
Lot's of discussions about how the likes of Lacazette and Aubameyang seem to have taken the likes of AMN, Joe and Reiss under their wing.

In central defence it would only leave us with Luiz, Sokratis, Holding (when he’s fit again), Chambers (who was rubbish in central defence for Fulham last season), Mavropanos (who was rubbish in central defence for Arsenal when he played last season), and Medley who’s a young kid. Is that strong enough in quality and numbers for a team chasing a top four place in the Premier League and three cup competitions?

Unless I’ve miscalculated the number of games finalists in the three cups have to play (13 in the Europa League, 7 in the League Cup and 6 in the FA Cup), the fewest number of games we will play is 46 (38 in the Premier League, 6 in the Europa League, 1 in the League Cup and 1 in the FA Cup). The most we will have to play (without FA Cup replays) is 64 (38 plus 13 in the Europa League and 7 In the League Cup with the two leg semi-final and 6 in the FA Cup with a one game semi).

Realistically it’s probably going to somewhere between 46 and 64. But it won’t shock me if we reach the final of the Europa League again and the quarter final of both the League and FA Cups. That’s 59 matches (38 + 13 + 4 + 4). I’m not denying that Mustafi can make horrible errors but he can play well. He was easily as good as Holding in the first half of last season. I remain to convinced that it’s good idea to get rid of him now.

All fair points Bern but when your own crowd boo you when you take the field, it's got to be time to go.

....rumours that Özil is sick again.

Love hearing the last part about Lacazette and Aubameyang. I think the fans are a bit more optimistic than we were at the end of last season.

Although I would caution fans at being over optimistic. We have a long way to go...but we seem to be on the right road there.