It's pastry week tonight. Lottie will have to improve on last week.

Arsenal, 30 years ago today anyone? No Googling.

So 20th October 1990? I’m struggling with this one. Wasn’t the date of our only league defeat that season, was it? Hence Chelsea away?

Nope, although we were away on the day.

Brawl at Old Trafford?

Give that man a Mars Bar

Red ones are the best.

Absolutely. The only thing 'undermining the referee' (and match officials more generally) is this failure to take responsibility. It gives the impression that the whole lot are closing ranks like an unaccountable mafia. Setting match officials up as the 'enemy' undermines them in my view.

Apparent the VAR official is now claiming he/she 'forgot' the rules with the Pickford tackle.

I can only imagines that this is the case with the Mané offside. If there is a frame where some part of Mané's body, feet or head is over the line (and not his elbow or sleeve!) they really need to show it. Otherwise their credibility is rapidly approaching zero.

I read that Van Dijk had only missed 35 minutes of premier league football since he signed for Liverpool and then went off injured at the weekend. Liverpool are now down to their only 2 senior CB's and hoping Fabinho can fill in as well. Testing times for them. I predict we may see less of Robertson and Trent flying so far forward with the loss of Van Dijk.

No, you are the only one who actually watches, in the deepest sense of taking in every detail and gaining infallible wisdom via the eyes

Yes I know but that is as I mentioned "rare". He also puffed up like peacock after that goal and thought his job for the day was done because he disappeared completely and stopped defending for the remainder. As noted in an earlier post, his workrate was an improvement against Man City so it looks like Arteta is giving him the judge he needs.

Have you watched any this year, apart from the Sheffield match?

Yeah plenty, he’s barely played

Thanks mate

Just make sure Arsene isn't looking....

I see that Liverpool, Man U and some other un-named Premier league clubs are in discussions with FIFA about creating a European super league. It makes me angry that 100+ years of football culture and history can just be eradicated because some greedy multi billionaire club owners want to make even more money and by trashing the game in the process. I'm all for progress but change isnt necessarily the same thing.

What makes the Champion's league exciting is seeing big clubs who typically don't see each other as much, square off. Barcelona vs Juventus, or Bayern Munich vs. Liverpool doesn't happen often, but when it does all eyes are on it. Normalize it where they are playing twice a year, annually (and you know they will have their own version of a league cup), and it will get boring. Decades old if not over a century old rivalries go by the way side. .

I can assure the American owners will be all for it. Changing cities is nothing to us. Very few clubs are left where there is enough nostalgia that it would get push back if they left. But too many change cities too often. The present LA Rams were originally in Cleveland, left for LA, then moved to St. Louis and moved back to LA, all within 75 years. Even the storied Los Angeles Lakers were originally from Minneapolis. (Minnesota is known as the land of a thousand lakes).

I was attracted to the English leagues over the other leagues for a variety of reasons. But over the course of 20 odd years, the league and the game as changed where its almost unrecognizable. The skill level has gone up alot but at the expense of a variety of things that made the league great.

Seems that as expected and trailed, Özil and Sokratis have indeed been omitted from our Premier League squad submitted today.

Good call

Also if Arsenal are involved that’s 3 American owners trying to drive it. It’s our national sport, there needs to be intervention.

PSG should get a PK purely for how ugly the Man Utd kit is.

Fine and sunny but the fish aren't biting. Wrong bait?

Liverpool having a whinge about Pickford.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... n-pickford
Apparently people like Jimmy Case, Souness etc were okay. I missed their article about the elbow to Tierney's face in the game against us. No sympathy for them at all. Scummy club and scummy supporters.

There was a guest on Arseblog or Daily Cannon (the only 2 I listen to beside Tuesday Club) who talked about the remodel they put forward was the first steps towards the European super league. It may have been Philippe Auclair but I am not sure. It might appeal to younger people but I have limited interest in such a proposal and if anyone thinks I would pay to watch my team in such a league - think again. I barely bother watching any CL or Europa League games and more likely to watch 3 minutes highlights.

Man U have 36 penalties since Ole took over. In that same time we've been given 9.

I get that Man U have fast players who dribble in to the box more but when I watch their games and our games there is never a debatable penalty that isn't given for them, they get everything. We never get a debatable one and have plenty of really good shouts not even looked at by VAR.

Just this season Saka was clearly bundled over in the box v Leicester in the cup, Milner must have handballed it about 3 times in the league cup match v Liverpool and a City player nearly took Gabriel's head off in the last game

Someone has done the stats of touches in the box per penalty given, which gives a fairer reflection as those teams who get in the box more will get more penalties.

Man U lead with 68 touches in the box per penalty. Arsenal are last with 849 touches in the box per penalty

Ah Mesut has just released another statement dribbling with self pity

Looks at watch and waits for the debate that he should be in the team again

If Özil's sole aim in all of this is to just play football then he should have moved on when he was clearly told he wouldn't be used this season. I don't blame him for staying and seeing out a hefty contract that the club gave to him, but if it is only about playing football then he could have moved, there were offers on the table. None of the top 50 clubs in Europe would sign him on even 1/4 of his current salary

The comments about fighting inhumanity and justice made me laugh. Erdogan was his best man at his wedding.

Sooner the bloke *%^@* off the better. Disastrous signing

If Özil goes this season without playing, I wonder what clubs will pick him up. I wonder what will be the best offer. Best in terms of the level of club not wages. Any top club will worry about his attitude. Will a RM, Juve, PSG, BM, City or Liverpool be interested?

My guess and its only a guess obviously, given his age, the acrimony, etc, he will be blamed for part of it. My guess is that it will be a club just below the top clubs. Milan, Roma, Sevilla, Atletico may be considered a top club at this point, Tottenham, Everton would take a chance I think. Ajax, Leipzig, Dortmund.

Indeed. One would imagine that Arteta told him some time ago that he wasn't part of his plans. So he's had plenty of time to find a new club or consider any offers that came in for him, if there were any. Of course if there were it's doubtful any club was offering him £350k a week, so if he's turned offers down to sit tight and continue picking up his money that is his prerogative. But don't go on social media whingeing about loyalty if you make that choice. Arsenal are still paying you Mesut.

When he first arrived, Özil’s play was a thing of beauty. I remember his first game away at Sunderland when he laid on a goal for Giroud with an inch-perfect and sublimely weighted pass. For the next few years, we all basked in the reflected glory of having a truly world class player in our team. He’s better than Zidane! It all seemed to change after the 2018 World Cup when he turned on the German international team set-up and his country – and they turned right back on him! I don’t know if that was when he signed the mega-bucks contract but his performances have waned significantly from that time onwards. For me he’s been a waste of space for the last 18 months.

When they played for Pep, both TH14 and Fabregas fell out of favour because they were used to a roving role with us and largely pleased themselves where they played. That’s not the Guardiola way; all his players are given very specific responsibilities. For example, TH was instructed – ordered – to hug the touchline even though that was never his game when he starred for us. When he consistently drifted around, as he’d always done, he was dropped. Similarly, Fabregas was required to play a very specific role in the Barca mf to mesh with Iniesta and Xavi. He stuck if for 3 years but he’d had enough at the end and demanded a move.

MA has taken a lot from Pep. We can all see that our players now have a much clearer idea of their roles – and I think we’d all agree that we look so much better for it. Like everyone else, Özil would have been given his instructions but given the evidence of his displays under MA, does anyone believe he stuck to them? I don’t recall a single convincing performance under MA. So he was regularly hooked, taking several minutes to inch his way off, bottom lip dragging; alternatively, he was just dropped. Remember the regular ‘sickness’ excuse, particularly for away games?

I also heard that in the aftermath of that debacle of a match vs Brighton, when MA (in my view, quite rightly) launched into Guendouzi, Özil who hadn’t even been on the bench, staunchly but somewhat irrationally defended Guendouzi. This deepened even further the rift between himself and MA. There was no coming back after that. I’m not sure if that was the intention of the episode but I wouldn’t bet against it. Whatever his motive, you reap what you sow, Mesut and today’s mewling self-serving pronouncements on loyalty and injustice all ring pretty hollow to me.

Some proper vomit stuff on twitter with wrighty and lineker bemoaning poor Özil being held by evil Arsenal againest his will. Totally ignoring his 350k a week wage and the fact Arsenal would let him go without a transfer fee at any point.

Apparently Mustafi has travelled with the squad to Vienna. Considering all the other injuries we have at CB he'll be needed
Chambers, Mari, Holding all injured. Saliba and Sokratis not registered. Luiz, Gabriel fit. Kolasinac and Tierney can play in a 3

Arteta obviously knows what he's doing. He has a system and players must play within it. I find it hard a player of Özil's quality arbitrarily left out of the squad. Arteta's system is not just about skill but also belief and having players with the right attitude.

For what ever reason Özil can't or won't abide by that system in some form or fashion and although I don't know the whole story, none of us do right now, I'm inclined to trust Arteta's judgement. I have no choice right now.

Hi Goonie

Partey is a Christian isn't he? Pretty sure Aubameyang is as well. I know Xhaka, Kolasinec and Mustafi are Muslim but I'm not sure about our young Londoners.

One thing for sure if the train comes off the rails this season then it won't be Özil's fault. The one master footballer we have in our generally middling squad - I wish him well wherever he goes.

Oh I don't know Old Man. If he'd played better, he'd be in the team and if he played the way he did a few years ago, he would improve us.

But he didn't, he isn't so he can't. There's a sadness in that but it's down to one man.

Correct. Arsenal have been trying to get rid of him for a while and were willing to take a big hit to do so. I dare say even a loan with Arsenal paying 50% of his wages would have been seen as a win for the club.
Arteta is quite within his rights to not pick a player, he doesn't need to give reasons, but it isn't exactly a shock to anyone who has watched Arsenal with Özil in the team that he contributes very little when we don't have the ball. I'm certain if Özil found a way to play to the level expected by Arteta he would be in the squad. Perhaps I'm being naive over the off field items but I certainly don't buy the 'poor me' posts

I don't understand why 'loyalty' is bought in to it by Özil. Yes he could argue he showed loyalty to Arsenal when he committed to his new deal (although I didn't see clubs lining up to purchase him as he was only 6 or 12 months away from being a free agent) But just because you think you showed loyalty in committing to a club doesn't mean the club needs to repay that loyalty in kind by picking you in the team. The club gave Özil the contract on the same premise as every other player, you attend training, work hard and listen to your managers instructions and tactics - then it is down to the manager whether he picks you. It is very simple.