The Ceballos and Xhaka average positioning is very strange. A 1-5-1-3 formation? with Xhaka behind the CB's and 2 right backs

With everyone fit I'd like to see a front 6 set up as
..........Partey........
.......AMN - Saka.......
Pépé - Aubameyang - Martinelli

Parety holding the fort, AMN and Saka as to No.8's going forward. Bags of pace and excitement in that team.

Alan Davies nailed this on the Tuesday club the other week. Said it’s basically cowardice because they aren’t technically good enough so it’s easy to go hiding and look busy around the halfway line and “energetic” whilst ultimately not doing much. Ceballos in particular is strange as he was billed as an attacking midfielder when he joined yet in some games he absolutely will not get into the final third let alone Near the box.

But we have bought promising players: Partey, Pépé, Gabriel, for instance, and we've had couple of players graduate to the first team (counting ANM in that group), and one or two others on the fringes, epsecially the likes of Martinelli.

Clearly it is too early to tell whether we have 'replaced' the likes of ramsey, kos and sanchez. But I don't agree that things are as hopeless on the squad front as your analysis suggests.

Puzzling

I agree we have some good players in defence and up front but the midfield IS hopeless there is no question and it’s killing us,

Excluding the recent signing who is injured willock, Xhaka, ceballos and El Nenny compared to the departed cazorla, Özil, Ramsey, Chamberlain ?

It’s not even a comparison. We have lost all our quality in the middle of the pitch and with no engine the car won’t move.

Most would agree we are only one defender from a good back line. Gabriel needs a good partner. Saliba is expected to be that partner.

We are only one midfielder away from a good central midfield. Partey needs the right partner. We are supposed to be set at the wings (Pépé and Willian).

We might be one forward from a front line, Aubameyang being the sole one deemed good enough.

throw in Saka playing where ever deemed best. AMN. Martinelli coming back.

What am I missing?

Fact is we are sixth from bottom of the league with a woeful scoring record. Were we ever that low and goalshy under Emery? I honestly can't recall, but surely the manager must take some of the responsibility for the fall from relative riches of 8th last season? The much criticised late days of Arsene now feel almost Chapmaneque in comparison. A couple of wins will really help change the mood.

1 more central midfielder for the first 11 as you need Partey + 2 new ones plus one who can sit on the bench and rotate as somebody is bound to get injured at some point.

There you go. An easy 100 million in the current market

Exactly.

As omoh has stated, our scoring is woeful. Our goals against is not too bad. It's better than Liverpool, Leicester, Soton (who sit 5th), Man Utd, Everton and Wolves.

10 goals is the worst of all teams out of the relegation zone. Aubameyang's lack of scoring is the most glaring. Is it lack of service or bad form or both? Should Arteta swallow his pride and mend things with Özil? Would it make a difference if Özil plays and would it hurt the shape of the side Arteta is trying to put in? One could say, what shape? lol.

It is hard to see how playing Özil would make us less creative. Problem is the manager has very publicly drawn a red line on his selection, something that might just about be acceptable if the squad was packed with creators, but difficult to understand otherwise. It is clearly a point of principle which Arteta may come to regret. Face, nose, cut off, spite - rearrange!

The biggest question for me for Arteta is why has he moved away from what was successful last season? he installed a high press, low block system, with a kind of floating left wing back and left centre back who would join attacks or pop up in central midfield. Did everyone suddenly just work that one out?

Go back to the 3 at the back, and if they are all confident ball playing CBs then there is no need for Xhaka who would probably still try to drop in as a 4th centre half. Use AMN or Saka as the floating left wing back again.

We hoped gabriel and partey would allow us to play a 4-3-3 but it turns out we need 2 gabriels and 2 parteys to be able to play such an attacking formation.

I think we'll see a similar europa team on thursday. Nelson and AMN will start. If we then revert back to Xhaka/Ceballos/Willian for the game against Burnley I'm going to be so annoyed. I wish Arteta plays the likes of Xhaka, Ceballos and Willian vs Dundalk - it is win/win. They 'should' fill their boots and get some confidence back and remember how to play attacking football. If they sink like a stone it is a meaningless game but proves that they really have to dropped from the premiership team.

A lot to write about in the CL game where the teams have walked off for an alleged racist remark by a fourth official

No details other than that we lost 3-0 and had two players (Akinola and Saliba) sent off late on.

Our frequent enforced kit changes look even more daft when looking at this evening’s game between Millwall and QPR. There it is okay for a team in blue and white to play a team in blue and white. You couldn’t make it up.

News on Martinelli:

Gabriel Martinelli made his long-awaited return to action for Arsenal in the Papa John’s Trophy tonight (Tuesday).

The Brazilian sensation, 19, burst onto the scene for the Gunners last season as he became the first teenager since Nicolas Anelka to more than 10 goals for the club in a single season.

He committed his long-term future to the club with a new deal in July but was ruled out for the remainder of the year shortly afterwards having undergone knee surgery.

With Mikel Arteta’s side struggling for goals, Martinelli has recovered ahead of schedule and been back in full training in recent weeks.

And he finally got back in competitive action for Arsenal Under-21s as Steve Bould’s side took on AFC Wimbledon in the Papa John’s Trophy.

Martinelli started the game before being substituted at half-time in what appeared a planned move as he builds up to match fitness.

His role gave a hint as to where he could feature in the Arsenal first-team as he returns to try and give some added impetus to Arteta’s misfiring side.

The Gunners lined up in a 4-4-2 diamond formation, slightly different to the system used by Arteta’s side.

But, tellingly, Martinelli was deployed as one of the two central strikers alongside Swedish youngster Nikolaj Moller.

Alexandre Lacazette has recently dropped deeper into a No.10-style role as one of two central players in Mikel Arteta’s system, which could offer Martinelli a passage into the side.

Martinelli showed different sides to his game, offering some dangerous runs in behind but also dropping deeper to get onto the ball to try and breakdown the Wimbledon defence.

He regularly dropped even deeper and wide onto the right flank in a flexible role in which he was seemingly given plenty of freedom.

The Brazilian largely featured on the left-wing last season, but Mikel Arteta indicated previously he sees him as a central striker.

"[Aubameyang and Martinelli] are centre forwards but with the squad balance that we have at the moment, to play on those positions on the left we don’t have five players," Arteta said after the 1-0 win over West Ham United last season.

Martinelli’s return may not necessarily be representative of Arteta’s plans, particularly given a slightly different system used by the Under-21s behind the strikers.

But it is fair to expect the Brazilian would ideally have been deployed in a role similar to that expected of him on his first-team return.

With that in mind, it appears he could be given freedom to roam around from a central role in order to make things happen in a side devoid of creativity.

So Man U join us and spurs in the Europa league. They were awful tonight, went 3-0 down to Leipzig and it ended up 3-2 thanks to 2 late goals, a penalty that was debatable and a goal that hits Maguire’s hand as it goes in which I thought wasn’t allowed

So with that problem Arteta decided to get Willian in and pay him a large amount of money. Arteta decided not to play the most obvious tactic in the NLD - park the bus and not give them chances on the break despite Spurs being top. Arteta decided that putting in non stop crosses is a good football tactic. Arteta needs to accept a lot of responsibility. There is a combination of some poor players and incompetence from the manager. Its alright for you to say give Arteta 100mil to get new players in. That would require us to trust his judgement in players.

The problem is he is unproven as a manager. The board will likely stick with Arteta, but if they are wrong about him, the damage he will do to this club in the next 2 years, will be immense. Already I question his managerial qualities as his player management looks very poor. I have never seen him as the messiah as have others on here. It will take a lot to convince me. Starting with 6 points in the next 2 EPL games.

6 points and an improvement of at least +5 on GD

I'm willing to wager a decent amount that Stan has no idea where we are in the table and even if he did, he is not nearly as concerned as some would think an owner should.

I echo that. As long as Xhaka, Willian and Ceballos are absent from the team, I echo it 100%

Xhaka very often runs into the penalty box whenever we are being attacked. I would expect him to regularly be just outside our penalty box to pick up the loose attacking midfielders (Toreira almost always does this for us, and with grit). Was that through Arteta's coaching or simply his lack of awareness? A top class DM would take a quick glance and move to positions to prevent any easy passage towards our goal. Be it in taking on the marauding player, or the be near some loose player most likely to receive the ball.

I believe he is a very nice guy and probably one of the leaders outside of the field. But, not good enough in play.

Another thing is our present position in the table has pretty much (as far as I can tell) barely raised an eyebrow on neutral fans. Were we Man Utd, Tottenham, Chelsea and even go as far to say Leicester or Everton, it may garner more news.

People know we are not only s**t right now, they aren't surprised at how bad it is.

I think we will turn it around. We aren't too bad defensively, which was a problem in the past. The attack is a big concern at the moment and we have the players who can score and/or create.

I've made no secret of the fact I think Martinelli will be a huge star. I hope the injury hasn't hurt his progress as it can some players who never really recover sometimes. I felt similarly about RvP initially.

Anyway, any resurgence for us I think needs to include Saka as a starter. I'd love to see a Partey/AMN midfield. Or a set up eventually where we have Partey has a box to box player. Which would mean another, more defensively minded center mid possibly. A settled and solid central defense is a must. We are either going to wait for Saliba or make another purchase and he and Saliba can battle for that spot once Saliba is deemed first team PL ready.

I'd take two scrappy 1-0's in our next two home games

Some rumours of Özil leaving in January, either to Turkey or DC United. I can't see it personally - but its only 6 months until he has to consider leaving London or retiring to stay in London so he might as well consider a move now. Frankly ridiculous that him going in January would put £9m back in the bank. If you also manage to convince Sokratis and Mustafi to go 6 months before the end of their deals there is another £5m saved for the next 6 months.

Appointing Arteta was always a huge gamble. He had never managed a professional team before and whilst I am sure the experience of working alongside Guardiola was invaluable in preparing him for his first steps in management I can't help but feel that Arsenal was too big a job too soon.

When he was appointed my heart told me it was an exciting appointment but my head told me that his lack of experience and any kind of track record was an issue and the chances were it wouldn't work.

I hope I am wrong but in my opinion the signs are that he is a little out of his depth, and understandably so.

I know what you mean, but he seems confident enough and hopefully a few wins will disperse the gloom. Managers have to start their careers somewhere, and it may be Arsenal is too big a job. His character seems right for the club - it may be his decision-making needs more work.

Looking back the club has had some very successful bosses with no previous formal management experience - Allison, Whittaker and Mee most notably - but also some "failures" such as Jack Crayston and Billy Wright. Easy to forget too that Arsene was hugely underrated by many when appointed.

Interesting months ahead.

Note to Season Ticket Holders who have credit in their accounts to cover the games missed - THE CASHBACK WINDOW IS OPEN. I think it closes at 17:00 today.

I got several calls from the Club on Monday so I did it yesterday. It's worth doing. I'm told this is the last opportunity to claim back this money.

I haven’t had any calls from Arsenal this week and no emails apart from one saying I didn’t get one in the ballot for the Burnley game. What is the cash back window? Never heard of it.

By rights anyone who takes on a big club management role should have some previous experience. Most successful managers start at lower league teams and build up their reputation and skillset. In recent times there seems to be a promote one of the old boys as they know about the club. Not sure it is the way to go.

You say that but Liverpool always would promote from within back in the day. Same with Barca, Guardiola was a rookie manager. I believe Zindane's frist management role was the Real job.

Wenger (too old)
Emery ( bad English and too defensive)
Ljungberg (too inexperienced )
Arteta (too young)

I reckon if we sack Arteta and appoint Allegri we revert back to moaning about broken English again. Yessss

Also from the sounds of things Arteta was nailed on to be Guardiolas eventual successor at city hence their anger when we got him.

Interesting that after officially leaving to develop or enhance his managerial career, Ljungberg is still unemployed. As I said at the time, I was told he was sacked. If that’s right, at least Arteta has done something right.

I think Nagelsmann at Leipzig will go on to get a big job soon. Remarkably he's still only 33 years old but has managed 200 games for Hoffenheim and now Leipzig. If you don't know him or his managerial style then this is a decent read.

https://totalfootballanalysis.com/artic ... rb-leipzig

".....has been a clear playing style with both sides playing with a high tempo both in and out of possession. They attack vertically through quick forward passes and press aggressively when out of possession"

"These rotations enable the key concept that we see from Nagelsmann. That is verticality in possession. This simply means that the ball will not be cycled from side to side aimlessly along the defensive line. Instead, for each receiving player, there is one clear priority and that is to look to play forward."

Check Arsenal.com Bern. Log in and hit the 'My Account' tab (top right) then check under the Account Cashback tab.

In my case, I'd sold a few tickets through the Exchange plus there were rebates to cover the games we couldn't attend at the back end of last season. Came to over £3k for my four.

He only had the job temporarily though right he was never a realistic long term option. I just don’t see him as a manager personality wise the whole shebang.

The rumour was he had lost it with the senior players Mesut Özil in particular (funny that)

I do get the feeling some of our managers have thrown their toys out of the pram with certain players possibly and not followed the Alex Ferguson trick of still playing playing them, let them think they’ve won whilst making a mental note “your gone the first chance I get sunshine”