It’s got so ridiculous. It’s absurd

To eradicate a refereeing mistake happening every once in a while we’ve endorsed widespread calamity and you could get endless amounts of injustice.

Imagine what that rule will be like in the World Cup.

Don’t get me wrong I found that hysterical today but we almost had a similar situation with Gabriel againest West Ham. What happens if it deprived us of a win at white hart lane? Or cost us a European place. You used to be able to say the decisions would even themselves out but with this there can be any amount of injustice.

Thing is where do you want it to end? Players will start to twig now. You could even get teams deliberately hitting the free kicks at the wall on purpose to find a hand. Or Trying to flick it up to get a touch.

The perception of injustice often wrong has completely destroyed footballs ability to govern itself.

When I think about creativity in a footballer I understand it to mean the ability to do something unusual with a pass, a dribble or finding a position on the pitch. Surely these are skills that will always be needed in the game? Liverpool have them all in their team as did City before them.

Steady on!

Yes this is correct,

even with Liverpool’s more functional midfield each of their midfielders contributed individually more goals and assists than Xhaka, ceballos and Torreira did combined in all competitions last season. Ox even himself contributed 8 goals on his own. This idea they aren’t required to be incisive in the middle of the park is nonsense

I’m not disagreeing with you. But I do think ‘creativity’ is being increasingly defined as the creation of goal scoring chances. Assists weren’t even counted or recorded in the days of Brady and Hudson. Now some seem to see assists as the be all and end all of midfield creativity. I’ve seen midfielders criticised here because they don’t have loads of assists.

But if you put any of them in an Arsenal side with the way we played last season, I bet they'd have similiar numbers to Xhaka, Ceballos and Torreira. Liverpool are just collectively such a formidable attacking team that anyone playing regularly is bound to get on the scoresheet or rack up a few assists.

Anyway, the point is not that creativity is suddenly definct as a concept, it's just that creativity often comes in a different form than it used to. A lot of the football we see now is based on pressing, movement and transition, rather than having players who can pick out a pass that nobody else saw.

Saka is the only person in the entire squad who has the ability for the brilliant pass or dribble. The best since Fabergas with those killer defence splitting pass. Özil was capable at times but didn’t have players with him, other than Alexis who could understand.

No those players still exist we just don’t have one. City have De bruyne, United Fernandes (8 goals and 7 assists in 14 games last year) chelsea Havertz and mount. Leicester Maddison (and what a goal yesterday ) the fact they press doesn’t exclude the need to have players who can unlock a defence in your side if you want to be successful.

The need to be workmanlike doesn’t exclude the need to have players in the middle of the pitch who can contribute moments of inspiration. Spurs haven’t looked the same since Erikssen left for example.

Creative players are what makes football fun. It’s that simple really.

Of course they exist, who said they don't? The point is that creativity as a concept needs to be expanded to include other types of players than just the ones with a killer final ball - players with a good final pass would obviously still be included. If it was only about that final pass I'd suggest we might be looking at the wrong players, because I don't think that's Aouars or Parteys biggest strengths from what I've seen.

Still think they'd help our creative issues though. And if we're talking about assists, there are a few players in the squad who I can see getting good numbers if our team clicks - including Saka, Willian, Pépé and Ceballos.

I'm sure Anfield has earned its reputation as a tough place to go as a player but as a fan I feared Old Trafford and the Bridge more than Anfield. Don't know why but I was more nervous about those places. Even when Liverpool were at their best I didn't fear it as much as Old Trafford at their best usually.

I would even think about adding Xhaka to that list. Some of his passing is at a high level in my view.

I suppose at the end of the day you can have a debate about if a midfield needs creativity or not but the absolute certainty is Arteta isn’t happy with his midfield and I’d take his opinion on this.

It’s telling Özil, Guendouzi and Torreira have been outcast and that we are being linked to Aour and Partey. It’s telling that despite possibly contemplating 100 million on new midfielders he couldn’t pull the trigger to sign Ceballos permanently.

Just read that we have not had a top 6 away win in 5 years. Can't be true, can it? Hmmm....I fear it is.

'just read'....? it is a stat that has been shouted by every media outlet for every big Arsenal away game for the last 5 years. I expect even non Arsenal fans can tell you the last time we managed to do it and the facts of the Cazorla/Coq masterclass that day

What might be equally telling is the reason for signing him up on loan, which is something we don’t know. Could feasibly be linked to finance. What it surely has to say though is that Arteta must have wanted Ceballos this season because if he didn’t, I simply can’t imagine we’d have taken him back.

My opinion on Aouar is also based on very limited viewings, where my impression has been that he's more of a dribbler than a passer, operation a little deeper than the classic playmaking number 10. For all I know Arteta may use him in a completely different manner, he doesn't seem like the type of manager to buy a player without a plan for him.

If we are signing players for 50 or 60 million quid in his position when he would cost half that it can’t be an issue of finance can it.

This hand ball rule, interestingly I hadn't realised that it was in use in Spain and Germany (amongst other leagues) last season. In England there were 19 penalties for handball last season yet Germany and Spain had triple that amount. The rule is here to stay for the season.
I saw someone mentioned the Gabriel one v West Ham, the reason I think that wasn't given is that it his his sleeve. The new rules note anything below the sleeve as being the part of the arm counted for handball (should we be making our sleeves longer!?) It also mentions the natural silhouette of the body, which is why ones like Dier, Maupay and others have been given but the one on Ward v Everton wasn't because his arms were down by his side. There is nothing to do with distance away from where the ball is struck or deflections off teammates. The big problem with that for me is judging what a natural position or natural silhouette is. If I'm standing still then clearly that natural position should be down by my side, but if I'm running then my arms are out in front and behind me, similar if I'm jumping or sliding in to make a tackle the arms won't be naturally by your side.

Like I said before, it may leave a bad taste but we need to be playing for these more. Just looking to cause more chaos in the opponents box. Shooting more, crossing more etc, you aren't going to win penalties for handball by just keeping possession

That is how I see Aouar from my own limited viewing. If we take a City team analogy he's more like David Silva than De Bruyne. He's a classic No.8, looks like he would be a good quick transition player from defensive to attack and definitely a good dribbler.

I think our creativity problems don't necessarily stem from not having a player like Cazorla for instance, as others have noted Liverpool's midfield 3 is hardly 'creative'. But what we have is a bit of an imbalance because we have a forward 3 who generally work best on the end of things rather than being a key part of the build up and creating chances for each other in the way the Liverpool front 3 function. Aubemeyang, Lacazette, Pépé are all 'at the end' type players. Willian certainly offers something different in that respect and I suspect Arteta sees Aouar doing the same. It doesn't mean he has to come in and start threading through balls like peak Bergkamp it can just be the speed of transition getting the ball to those finishers.

Liverpool's midfield 3 can only operate the way they do because of the all round talent of the front 3. Most team's midfield 3 have now shunned the traditional No.10 and play with either 2 holding and 1 attacking or like City try to play with 1 holding and 2 No.8's. We could possibly operate somewhere in between. Xhaka holding, Ceballos going box to box but with a more defensive mindset when out of possession and Aouar also going box to box with a more attacking mindset. It is all about the balance. Man U for example haven't found that balance in the midfield but were and still are getting bailed out by individual talent in the front 3 positions who are making and scoring goals for themselves and the ridiculous amounts of penalties they get. Man U's biggest problem is Pogba, he will have 1 amazing game in 8 but in the rest he unbalances the team.

Anfield is more feared than Stamford Bridge for me, even in the peak Chelsea years. I felt we performed better at Chelsea than Anfield.
Maybe it goes back to that run of 20 odd games we had v Chelsea without losing around the turn of the century. Liverpool away has always been a tough game no matter what state Liverpool are in.
Old Trafford was horrible because a) you knew you were up against a good team but more so b) you knew you'd be up against the ref as well that day. There were so many games I watched us play away to Man U that I was left with a sense of injustice, not just the famous ones, there was a period of time when they literally could just kick us all day long and never get punished. Strange that if it was such a good way to beat us those tactics never seemed to happen when we were the home team. It is almost as if Man U knew that their status and the home crowd made refs wilt on those occasions.

Yes, Saka has that bit of magic in his game and Ceballos can surprise too. Bellerin and Tierney are not regulation and what Aubemeyang does so often is creative - he rarely taps them into the net.

Are we signing anyone for £50-£60m? Perhaps Real Madrid weren’t willing to lose him permanently?

Hoping for a good performance. But no matter what we will always have 1989. Just watched the highlights of the last few minutes again. To save time can someone tell our US poster what actually happened that season.

Dion't forget we did the double over Leicester in their title year.

Sine Pep took over City he's spent £410m on defenders. It is still early days but Gabriel at £25m looks good business up against that lot
Rúben Dias: £65m
João Cancelo: £58.5m
Aymeric Laporte: £58.5m
Benjamin Mendy: £52m
John Stones: £50m
Kyle Walker: £47m
Nathan Aké: £41m
Danilo: £27m
Angelino: £11m

LOL... I've not read it in the media. Not saying it wasn't widely written about, I never noticed it. Took my surprise when I read it but it makes sense seeing how badly we have been over the last few years. I thought we would have snuck a win in there somewhere. Maybe I'm thinking of cups or something. Anyway, let's end that.

I do recall both Chelsea and Tottenham not beating us for a few years home or away. I thought they had us once till Kanu worked his magic. That impossible angle goal was sublime.

Even when we were owned them in the league, WHL was scary to me because we had never lost to them when I became a fan. So, add WHL to the list.
Don't get me wrong, Anfield was scary but OT kept me up the night before as well as the Bridge as a close second shading WHL by a whisker.

I assume to the players Anfield was up there with OT. But as for this fan, it was below OT and the 2 major London derbies.

Yes, that will go down in the annals of Arsenal lore...lol. Didn't a Tevez led West Ham do the double over Man Utd and almost everyone in the top 4 or something like that one season?

(PS: My autocorrect was taking the proverbial piss as you all say and I caught it right before hitting the send button and changed it to 'annals'...then again we do say Up the ARSEnal)

Well we offered 38 million for Aour that Aulas said he rejected so far.

Yes he’s surplus to requirements at Madrid.

Somebody not on AGs blocked list (if there are any left) might want to inform him that Mustafi is close to joining Lazio, according to reports in Italy.

That does not mean we’ll be paying £50-£60m for anyone.

This season maybe Ceballos isn’t needed at Real. But isn’t a possible explanation for that a personality clash between him and Zidane? If it’s down to that, maybe they think he’s worth keeping him in case Zidane goes next summer? Also, they presumably can’t be that keen on getting rid of Ceballos. If they were, all they have to do is drop the price low enough to make someone willing to sign him.

I wonder if you’re trying to see issues that may not really be there.

Have to say, as good a manager as Guardiola obviously is, that is shockingly poor considering they still have a lot of question marks concering their back four.

They haven’t loaned him out for 2 consecutive years because they see him as a transformational midfielder have they.

Well they’ve chosen not to drop the price low enough to permanently sell him.

From our point of view, whilst he was very good for the last 10 games, he had one standout performance before that in the Burnley game. There still might be some legitimate question marks from our side if there's a significant outlay. For a low fee I think we'd take him in a heartbeat but clearly that's not on the table. Whilst I like him and am glad we've got him again, I think he's still got a point to prove to me that he's first first choice in what we're aspiring to be i.e really challenging for the title.

Rumoured next bid coming after the Liverpool game, 40 million euros plus 10 million euros in add ons.

We should be able to raise 40 million from sales - could be an interesting final week of the transfer window. I bet there will be a few surprises, some big teams taking some desperate gambles or loans. That is partly due to the window closing after the season starts, so some teams will be under pressure to act in the market.

Heard Spurs want to sign Christian Benteke.....

Yes, he looks a player who could be fantastic at helping us play through the press. That can lead to situations further up the pitch obviously so such a player would not have great assist stats or even necessarily the greatest pass completions stats. However, for a player to do that they have to be very, very good at not turning over possession.