Hi Haz,

Yep, there is nothing like winning a trophy after such a dismal season. Not to mention it gets us out of jail Europa-wise.

Wolves have had perhaps their best ever season and have lit up the PL at times but now mind themselves ousted from the Europa Cup by us.

I hope Wolves win the Europa Cup.

Tierney caught my eye. He has a bright future with us if we can keep him. Hope we don't muck it up.

Arteta out.

I recall reading rumors Liverpool would back out of the Charity Shield. So we play City?

Factoid: The person in the song is the daughter of JFK, Caroline Kennedy

Here’s are first 4 choice goalkeepers, look at the height of them. For contest Leno is listed as 6ft 3”.
Karl Hein, Matt Macey, Bernt Leno, Emi Martinez

To be fair I thought Frank took it like a man. Pointed the finger at his own guys' complacency. As far as injuries go nobody can argue Chelsea got more than their fair share in that match!

It's insane every time I see it. I recall sitting in a packed to the rafters pub in LA, the famous 'Cock 'n Bull' pub and the gooners are all quiet, because we know we are going to get scored on at some point. The Manc fans are all yelling, screaming, willing them team on and a lot of "oh bloody hell's are being spouted and they can sense a goal is coming and we are hanging by fingertips and can't believe its not ended in regulation time. Goes to PKs and the rest is history. We hugged each other and screamed ourselves hoarse. The Man Utd fans were gobsmacked. Shocked. They didn't know what the eff just happened. Neutrals consoling them "Arsenal bloody didn't deserve this one at all mate", we are being told by Chelsea fans, Tottenham fans, it was the worse Arsenal cup final they have ever witnessed, yadda, yadda, I've seen you guys lose better than you won. Us telling the Liverpool fan owner, 'that was for 2001'

https://www.facebook.com/Arsenal/videos ... =2&theater

Ceballos is no Fabregas but he did well. I'm hoping for more consistency out of him. The minute he came on for us when he first came I could see he had some quality but he got injured right away. I think that injury had a lot to do with all the back and forth stuff. Had he stayed healthy, get a run of games, got to know the ins and outs of the players and where they make their runs, how they like the ball (which is in training and come to fruition in games), we'd have gotten a better Ceballos.

Great song

The clip of Wrighty's happy reaction to the Arsenal FAC win and Cole's look is absolutely hilarious.

Fan Group Uproar
Break Transfer Record
Players held up at knifepoint
Emery fired
Out of Europe
Poor league results
Interim manager,then replaced
New Manager appointed
Manager gets Covid,league suspended
finish league,no euro place
Win FA Cup,back in Europe
Couldnt make it up

This sort of of sums up a few things.

Yes but apart from that it was an uneventful season

More than many of their fans have, some even tried photoshopping version of the Martinez “handball” to show how biased against them the football World is.

I agree for Lampard's immediate interview after the game, but since he has come out and moaned about the red card - which is fine because it was a harsh call - but he said Chelsea dominated the game and that red card 'turned the game'. They were losing 2-1 at the time and had failed to have a single shot on target for the last hour of football when it was 11 v 11.

If you watch Aubameyang's winner again Zouma does that annoying defender thing is sticking his hands behind his back. I think it doesn't give him the right balance to be able to react when Aubameyang shifts it left.
The laws are partially to blame that penalties have been given for handball when it had clearly been ball to arm, but defenders need to stop doing this both arms behind the back thing. It seriously impedes their mobility. The laws are pretty clear that if a defender has his arms down in a natural position and the ball hits him for a yard or two away it can't ever be considered hand ball.

I heard that Arsenal have won 10% of all the FA Cups ever awarded

Maitland-Niles is an interesting one for me. Other than Saka I think he's our most talented academy player. He has pace to burn and can hold his own physically. His weaknesses can be (and are) being coached by Arteta. If you asked me a few months ago I would have said sell him and get a decent price. But now I think he has a lot to offer, he's improved a lot since Arteta spelled out his non negotiables to the team.
It might be he is a player the club feel they have to sell if they get a good enough offer, but I think he can be an important player for us. Wing back seems to suit him, especially in this Arteta system where wing backs can come inside to be midfielders. I'm not sure where he gits in a 4-2-3-1 formation quite yet, but plenty of others should leave before him.

I've read a fair bit about the injuries Chelsea suffered in the game, it is tough as we know. I think Azpilicueta pulled his hamstring from constantly having to sprint back to balls over his head. The new season kicks off on September 12. That's only 5-6 weeks away, any muscle pull now is ruling players out of pre-season (whatever form that takes) and the start of next season.

Also, worth noting with I'm sure Arteta's preferred back 3 would be Mustafi/Luiz/Mari so we were missing two of those and also have Martinelli injured so we weren't without our own problems.

I agree, Rich, that hands behind the back thing is just so lame. It affects the balance and the reaction time.

The other thing that is so annoying is players turning their backs or duck their heads when a shot comes in. They are payed millions to defend but don't want to get hit.

Having secured the cup and a european place and the extra money that brings I would really like to see us push on now.

Chelsea are making some great signings (at least on paper) and that Pulisic looks like a player. United look likely to snare Sancho amongst others.

I really hope we don't end up with Chelsea's cast-offs or Sanhelli's contact book signings because we really risk falling farther behind and with more players on big salaries who we can't get rid of.

Let's do some proper old school scouting and look at the likes of the french league to find a few potential gems before their value gets too high.

I'm not sure calling out your own players after losing a cup final is to be admired. Bizarrely, he accused them of playing short passes, like that is some footballing offence. Arteta had his number yesterday.

I guess as the losing manager you have certain options:

1. blame the ref;
2. moan about bad luck;
3. say you were deservedly beaten by a much better team;
4. rationalise your own team's shortcomings on the day.

From what I have seen he opted for number 4 when he could have quite easily shouted 1 and 2.

Hi Rich. I checked this. The initial FA Cup final was won by a club called Wanderers (not to be confused with Wolverhampton Wanderers as they were from Upper Norwood, London) in 1872. The FA Cup continued until 1915, following which it was suspended due to the First World War.

It resumed again in 1919, with the first post-war final held in 1920. It continued until 1939, following which it was replaced by something called the Football League War Cup due to the Second World War. The FA Cup resumed again in 1945, with the first post-war final being won in 1946. It has continued ever since.

So from 1872 to 1915 there were 44 FA Cups awarded. From 1920 to 1939 there were 20 FA Cups awarded. From 1946 to 2020 there have been 75 FA Cups awarded. So 44 + 20 + 75 = 139. Arsenal have won it 14 times, so 9.93% rounded up, perfectly reasonably, to the 10% you heard.

Be interesting to see that percentage over the last 50 years. And the last 25. We have a tremendous record in the Cup

Hi Andy. That’s a nice easy one to do. Over the last 50 years we’ve won it 11 times in 1971, 1979, 1993, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2020. 11 is 22% of 50.

For the last 25 years everything before our win in 1998 (so from the above list 1971, 1979 and 1993) gets removed from the equation. Leaves us with 8 out of 25, which 32%.

Whoops. It’s 10.07%, not 9.93%.

Thank you Bernard. In recent times 32 per cent or (almost) a third of all FA Cups is pretty astonishing

So 11 Cup wins since I’ve been supporting them and this last one was pretty satisfying ....I still have Charlie’s winner and Alan Sunderland’s winner as the two best ever. I moved to Philadelphia in 1990 so the last 9 have been viewed at a distance

In finals that I’ve actually attended I’m 50/50. The two above offset by West Ham and Ipswich
I’m 67 in December so with reasonable luck I hope to see a few more...mind you I’d give up any future League and Cup wins to win the European Cup/Champions League just once.

AMN instead of Kola anytime. The element of age counts very significantly as well.

What is so frustrating is that Arteta needs just a few more players. If Saliba is as promising as advertised, get him a quality partner he can learn from as well as being effective. A fast, tough DM who can read the game and we are basically in business. We could use more but just as is, and we have a very decent squad. If we got another defender and Partey we would be tough to beat.
It looks like we won't get him but I would have done anything for Upamecano. Holding has gone backwards it seems, enough said about Luiz and Mustafi.
I think Martinelli can lead the line if Aubameyang goes. Not as well obviously but good enough to make us a constant threat. Lets offer Monaco a swap, Özil for Cesc , throw in Mustafi as a sweetener.

Dead right Hodd. A Chelsea supporting cousin of mine posted this on Facebook after the final. “Very sad unlucky Chelsea. Some *%^@ decisions against us. At least we are in champions league.”

I hope he enjoys their fourth place finish as much as I enjoyed the winning of a trophy, because I know he won’t. Give me the choice between coming fourth (or second or third) to get in the Champions League but not winning anything, or winning the FA Cup to get in the Europa League, I know which I’d choose. The winning the FA Cup option every time. Trophies wins are what I remember, not coming fourth to qualify for next season’s Champions League. I’d make a completely different decision between winning the title or the FA Cup, but not for coming second, third or fourth.

He then went on to moan about the handball decision. I had to politely point out that television replays showed the ball hadn’t crossed the line. While the majority of Martinez’ body was outside the area, his hands and thus the ball were on the line, so the correct decision was not to give the free kick or to send Martinez off.

Being so fair I did accept the second booking was wrong with the sending off, but I also mentioned that Aubameyang being pulled down when through on goal could easily have been given as a sending off. Rudiger wouldn’t have got to Aubameyang in time. So the most dodgy decisions arguably went both ways.

EDIT: He actually wrote ‘sh it’ without the space for the word blanked out here from his Facebook post.

The Community shield is on August 29th, the players will be in the middle of pre-season and the seasons doesn't start until Sept 12th. Lots of talk of both teams playing the kids to protect the first team.
Next season will have a ridiculously crammed schedule, even more so now we're in Europa, teams are going to have to manage their squad more carefully than ever.

Agreed, It is far more than 'a few' we need. We need to have a 4 out of 5 success rate with our transfers over the next 2 or 3 windows. If you look through the squad and count the number of players who could be in a title winning squad and it isn't many, then count how many could be first 11 for a title winning team and its fewer still.
I'm worried there is a lot of expectation being put on Saliba's shoulders to suddenly fix our defence. He's 19, he will need time and patience.

Spot on
They were also unlucky with the Pulisic injury, but that can happen to any player in any match

If the season starts on the 12th, you have to seriously question the decision to play the community shield 2 weeks earlier, given the fact that it would then only just enable a 4 week gap between matches.

Preliminary rounds of the Europa Cup start on 20th August - 17 days hence. I think Spurs might dodge that round but they'll probably be in the 1st Qualifying round on 27th August. 2nd & 3rd Qualifying rounds are 17th and 24th September respectively so straight after the PL kick-off. Final Qualifying Play-offs to get into the Group Stages (where we start) are on 1st October.

Better news for our neighbours is that all the qualifying ties are single-leg.

Man U and Wolves play later this week and if they succeed (they should), they play each other Monday or Tuesday next week with the final on 21st August. Doesn't leave long before 12th Sept.

Not sure it's ever happened before in any competition - next year's fixtures start before this year's cup has been won.

Completely agree we are a few seasons away from a title and that is contingent on us getting quantity as well as quality right on transfers.
What I'm referring is to be among the top clubs next season. We aren't going to get anywhere close to challenging for the title, but we can get top 4 with a few more players. If we got a good defender and a good DM alone, we could make a serious run at top 4 to top 6 and make it tough for Liverpool and City to get points off us.

As far as titles, we are a long way off. Especially given how loaded City and Liverpool are and how the transfers Man Utd and Chelsea are going to bring in. Not to mention, Tottenham, Leicester and even Wolves already have decent squads.

Aubameyang is presently one of the best strikers in the world. No one is going to adequately replace him unless you are willing to spend nearer to 100 million than 50 million. That said, I am very excited about Martinelli. The little I've seen him says he's going to be very, very good. Not as good as Henry or Aubameyang or even RvP but he doesn't need to be. He is young, hungry, skillful and driven. The ingredients are there. With him Pépé, Lacazette (if he stays) and a creative center mid who can find him and the forward line fine each other, we will be okay I think.

The defense is what is the most pressing.