And Pépé, who has been getting closer and closer has calibrated it just fine. 1-0 will do nicely.

Hopefully good for his confidence.

Pépé!! He deserved that.

Whoosh. Lovely goal. Pleased for Nelson. He’s been as good as Pépé. Great cross too.

Agreed well done Nelson

I nearly said it earlier. Nketiah is not any sort of threat. Easy to see why Leeds used him sparingly.

There’s been a lot of good calling by Rob Holding instructing the keeper as to exactly what to do.

Edit: Nice effort by Lacazette

Why are we in white strip?

In fact Holding has done a really good organising role. I’m impressed.

Hell of a substitution. Wonderful for Balogun.

Now he looks like a threat.

Balogaaaaaaaan...

Edit: credit too to Smith Rowe for an unselfish perceptive assist.

Balogun scores straight off the bench

Their number 99 looks a bit flakey.

We have restarted talks with him over signing a new deal. Only 6 months left on his deal. Looked certain he’d leave for free at the end of the season, he still might, but this will help the case for him staying if hope

Great to see spectators but they were sitting like chess pieces in the wide open spaces of empty stands.

What is it about strikers and their aura ? I’ve only seen Balogan play a handful of minutes and he looks a striker who can properly lead the line, I think I could watch Nketiah play all week and remain unconvinced.

Do you know what I mean. I’m not just saying it because he’s scored because I thought likewise in his other appearance

Nice, bright second half performance and three good goals.
Very average opposition though.

I do know what you mean. Nketiah is a penalty box poacher and to be fair he is often in the right place at the right time. I think I read his 10 Arsenal games have a cumulative distance of 50 yards! But Nketiah doesn't seem to hold up the ball or link play as much as you'd want. If you're absolutely dominating a team, attack v defence and just need a guy who can be in the right place in the box Nketiah is your guy. Far too early to judge on Balogun but he is taller and looks stronger.

Glad for Pépé to score, he certainly looked more determined to make an impression and force something to happen. His red card could be the turning point for him.
Nelson was good, just making things happen, it is something we've missed from our play for too long, players who are willing to take some responsibility, be brave and not be afraid of it not working out.

With Pépé suspended I wouldn't mind seeing Nelson and Saka as our starting winger v Wolves, even with Willian as a No.10 if Arteta must have him in the team. But I think Arteta will drop Nelson to the bench and play Willian wide or if he's not fit it'll be Aubameyang back to the wing, Lacazette central and Saka wide right

Don’t know whether you have seen this exchange between Diego & Gary https://twitter.com/footballtips/status ... 95008?s=20

Watched for about 20 mins before the droopy eyes won. And in those 20, am glad to see Pépé showing a lot more energy and enthusiasm. And kudos to Nelson too. I'll keep rooting for him to start EPL games. Come on Arteta, treat him right.

Pépé needed the start because it showed Arteta has confidence him and he needed the goal for his own confidence.

That said, I am not sure if things will work out. He may end up a 70 million mistake. He would have been better playing for the Arsenal of 2002, etc, where our play was more like playing jazz. Lots of improvisation, freer movement, we often saw Freddie and Bobby end up on the other's side of the pitch, Henry has a faux winger down the left, etc.

Very defined roles and a fairly strict system just doesn't seem like something he will adapt to.

Rumored as a loanee in January

One good thing from the Europa League is that Celtic are out and we won’t be drawn against them in the future.

This table shows the importance of champions league money

The CL algorithm and divying up of money seems rigged. As much as I like that we are ranked much higher than I had previously thought, I won't debate anyone who said we shouldn't be ranked where we are.

Let's be honest, some teams are going to get eyes on screens no matter how they are doing and the CL has made sure those clubs are going to be featured.

Time for Kroenke to sell up. Total disaster

The club coefficient ratings also seem a bit wrong. This is points allocated to each club based on their european performance and a higher coefficient meaning you get a higher seed in any draw. There was always the concern that if you went a few years without Champions League you would then be handed a very tough draw when you did eventually get back in......that's not necessarily the case as long as you can have decent showings in the Europa league. For example when we reached the Europa league final in 18-19 only the two champions league finalists and chelsea as the winners of the europa scored more coefficient points than us.

So that means that even with 4 years outside the champions league we are still ranked as the 11th best side in Europe and would be comfortably in pot 2 if we got back in the champions league. We still need a strong Europa league this season to maintain it.

Are you still complaining about how much we spend on transfers.
https://www.transfermarkt.com/premier-l ... bewerb/GB1

This would suggest we have spent regularly but not well. Even players who we signed for free and then paid silly wages to are part of the problem. Why would Kroenke give the club any more money when it is wasted. Arteta has followed closely in the footsteps of his predecessors with Willian, Soares, Mari, Luiz resigned and even offering Mustafi a new contract.

Think you’re being a bit unfair there. Well, more than ‘a bit’. As I’m sure Rich has said, since Arteta arrived Mustafi arguably became our best central defender from those available before his injury. Hence offering him a new contract seems, to me, entirely logical. Moreover, Mari didn’t play enough games prior to his injury to make our minds up regarding how good or bad he really is. Luiz, despite some bad errors, has in my view been good overall since arriving. Must admit I count him as a more than decent signing.

Soares is another who hasn’t played much but in the games he has played, I’ve been quite impressed. Certainly done enough to convince me he’s strengthened the squad, which was surely what he was signed to do. With Willian, I haven’t given up on him. He can’t have lost his ability because he now wears an Arsenal kit instead of a Chelsea strip. Perhaps his slow start, and undeniably it has been slow, has more to do with playing a different system at Arsenal.

Also those 4 players only cost £10m in transfer fees (if you believe Mari cost £4m which is what his previous club said they received) Those cheaper stop gap signings are necessary I believe in how we are going to grow and build a team. We certainly can't spend £30m on every new player like Chelsea have, there will be players we have to buy who won't be in our long term vision but who can come in and fill a gap in the squad and hopefully improve us. I do have a problem with the size of wages being paid as we certainly need to get control of that, we're paying champions league wages to barely europa league level players in some cases. It will take a while to clear the decks.

Don't forget Jeans guy !

Get your holiday shopping early this season.

I have difficulty with the wages and the length of some of these contracts. Poster after poster complains of us not off-loading our problem players. Usually because they intend to go nowhere because of their wages and the lack of pressure at Arsenal. But we have just added to this with long contracts for new incomers for players who really are marginal at best.

Next to Pépé, the most disappointing thing is Saliba not deemed first team ready for the PL. I didn't expect him to start right away but to be starting regularly by now
He is a player that gooners had been talking about for well over a year. I would have thought he and Gabriel's status would be reversed. Saliba seemed a sure starter from the hype.

https://www.footballinsider247.com/excl ... een-light/
Arsenal are set to terminate the loan deal of defender Zak Swanson early, Football Insider can exclusively reveal.

The right-back, 20, has struggled to make an impact at Dutch side MVV Maastricht since joining on a season-long loan in the summer.

1. Pépé was MOTM in our last game. 2. Do you have any specific issues with Gabriel's performances this season that bring this rumination about him and Saliba to the surface?

Will anyone over the age of 7 actually wear that?

Tried to get one of the 2000 tickets for the Vienna game and failed. Kept getting a message ‘Error 503 Backend unavailable, connection timeout’ come up. Tried phoning the ticket office which was reserved for club level members and was waiting 40 minutes for someone to answer before I gave up.

I’m thoroughly peed off.

Finally listened to the Arsene Wenger desert island discs.

Very good, undoubtedly a remarkable person. I would highly recommend it. You will learn far more about him from that then the book