I guess nobody else here is impressed Nadal winning the French Open (again) either.

I know it seems strange to discuss our new signing on this Özil forum, but I have been thinking about how he will fit in.

At the onset I must say I am surprised as he does not seem to be the creative midfielder we were requiring. Partey appears to perfect for Xhaka position. He is more mobile and can break forward if required with an ability to beat players. All the things Xhaka lacks. Mind you Partey will need to hit the ground running. His age means that it will be difficult to make money on him which was supposed to be our objective as a club.

I would have thought we should go back to 4 at the back, getting rid of Luiz and use a combination of Elneny, Saka, Cellabos, M-N and Pépé to make up the midfield. Personally I would like us to try 442 or 451 as tactics but that doesn’t appear to be the modern way.

I have long been of the opinion that What Xhaka lacks requires other players to try and cover him. If Arteta intends to slide Partey in beside Xhaka I don’t understand how this would work and increase our creativity. Looking with interest at our next games.

I saw Wenger’s quotes about the technical skill diminishing in footballers with more of a focus on physical attributes. I think he’s right and the evidence can be seen in the Premier League with the number of teams whose biggest threat is the counter attack or their biggest weakness is the counter attack.
City and Liverpool are both vulnerable to the counter
Arsenal under Arteta have used it as a great tactic, Spurs with quick forwards do it well and Man U’s good results at the back end of last year came from quick counters.
Even further down the league, Leicester have done it for years, wolves have had success with it and more and more teams are working towards this tactic, especially coupled with a high press. Southampton, Brighton, Leeds, villa all go for this tactic.
I wonder where this goes because we could get to a point where neither team actually wants the ball

Not sure if anyone has noticed Partey's stats for Ghana. He has a 1 in 3 goals to games ratio and generally plays a bit further forward, sometimes in a behind the striker position.
Partey made his name playing as a more defensively minded midfielder in a very strict and defensive system employed by Simeone at Atletico. I've read a few people say that perhaps he may be released a bit more at Arsenal and are confident of his abilities going forward.
On the face of things a very, very good signing as a CM who can play on his own as a def-mid, as a pair in a double pivot, or as a box-to-box. I'm really looking forward to seeing him play for us.

The real ineptitude in all of this is the abject failure of implementing a functioning track and trace system as per the rest of europe until two weeks ago. And even then it's still deeply flawed. the countries who are emerging quickest from this phase of the virus are those who imposed stricter lockdowns at the start and then had a fully funtioning track and trace. And once the advisor-in-chieft to Boris goes on a 60 mile round trip jolly whilst infectious, without consequence or retribution, you can't then blame the public for putting two fingers up to those in power. We're told to get back to work, to eat out to help out, then told we're to blame for the virus spreading. It's a clown car of policies at the moment.

The ineptitude shown throught this entire crisis should result in criminal charges, especially when it comes to handing out the contracts to newly formed companies with no track record in PPE who suddenly are awarded multi million pound deals for such equipment. Oh, look they're also mates of the cabinet and Tory donors too. Funny that.

And don't get me started on the irony of those worrying about the economy crashing when they voted for Brexit.

I can see football hitting big trouble with Covid right now.

It was ‘okay’ when leagues were on best behaviour and in controlled bubbles, and when the final stages of the European competitions were completed in a single location.

Now that we have such as internationals with individual players going everywhere I can only imagine the latent problem bursting out again. To a small degree we’ve seen this with Tierney.

Cycling is hitting just that problem. They scraped through and managed to finish the Tour de France but the (less controlled) 3 week Giro D’Italia has major problems at the moment. Two complete teams and a few other individuals have had to pull out today. It looks like the whole event will be canned well before the planned end in nearly two weeks time.

Ireland were missing 5 players for their game against Wales on Sunday. One was a positive test and the other 4 were due to close contact.

Football may be ‘fake’ in some eyes but at least it’s there and about the only thing keeping me sane right now.

Can’t you take up sowing?

...wild oats?

I saw a stat this morning that Arsenal run more kilometres per match than any other Premiership side. From memory Liverpool were second. I strongly suspect Arsenal’s kilometres run would be significantly less had Özil been in the team this season.

There’s nothing to stop skilful or creative players working hard. Ceballos, Saka and Willian all do. That’s one of the important reasons why, in my view, Özil clearly isn’t part of Arteta’s plans this season.

Or knighting?

In 8 months time Özil, Luiz, Mustafi and Sokratis will be out of contract.

So Cristiano Ronaldo has tested positive for Covid19!
He seems fine so far. This pandemic keeps reminding you it respects no one.

PS Send a doctor over to check on Mustafi, please.

In 8 months time Özil, Luiz, Mustafi and Sokratis will be out of contract.

I'm surprised that you and AG are still on the forum because all you do is ruin the pleasure that the late Steve Glenbervie put his heart and soul into.

DeBruyne being out is a big help. I hate that Tierney is out. I want to be at full strength defensively and not having, without question, the best LB since turncoat Cole is a big set back.
I'd love to leave with a draw. Doable. If we can somehow manage a goal first and open up some space between van Dijk and keeper for Aubameyang when they press for an equalizer, to run at, that would be great as well.

We’re playing Manchester City; van Dijk plays for Liverpool.

We’re playing Manchester City; van Dijk plays for Liverpool.

DeBruyne being out is a big help.