Thanks. I was always intending to just wait and when the times comes to actually pay hard cash for renewing season tickets, to get the money for games missed under the ‘closed doors’ policy to be knocked off then. I’m assuming that can still be done, can’t it?

Ljungberg never seemed the eight fit, although by all accounts he did some good work with the younger players. I don't mind him losing it with the senior players - at least he can say it from a position where it knows what it takes to be part of an absolute elite team

I just tried to get the remaining balance back on my season tickets but the message says it cant do it right now.

FabrizioRomano (bit of a transfer guru) on Szoboszlai: "We will have Szoboszlai's decision by the next week. Leipzig would be the easiest solution because they are in the same family with Red Bull. Milan are always in contact. Arsenal have also been in contact for many years"

I'm pretty sure he'll go to Leipzig. He'll be sold for double his 25 million release clause in under 4 years is my prediction

You mean he wears size nine shoes?

So Klopp complains about fixture congestions and then plays Salah, Jota and Fabinho in a dead rubber last game of the champions league group. They have already won the group no matter the result tonight

Like Bern, I was going to leave the the balance of the season ticket money but there was several hundred quid's worth of Exchange ticket sales that I'd rather have in my pocket than theirs. They told me I couldn't have one lot of ackers without the other. I always find the Arse.com website counter-intuitive so I just followed their advice - still took an age to complete the processes plus phone calls when the system gummed up.

I’ve never had anything to do with the Ticket Exchange Scheme. So I guess that’s why they didn’t contact me.

Seriously Arteta....stated the obvious.

“We need to score goals. If not, it's unsustainable,” Arteta bemoaned in the aftermath of the north London derby defeat. “It doesn't matter what we do in the other departments on the pitch, if we don't score goals, we can do nothing. 

“So, we need to put the ball in the net, urgently.


Opta stats show that Arsenal have fashioned just 65 chances in the Premier League this season – the fewest of any of the teams in the English top flight.

Then get creative Mikel.

Barca and Real are exceptions.

Why? Juve appointed Pirlo as manager this year and he had even less experience than Arteta.

Kenny Dalglish won trophies as a player manager clearly that never happened either so must be another exception

The current Bayern Munich manager's only previous management experience was in the third tier of German football, in the early 2000s. He won everything with Bayern last year.

Lampard had one moderately successful year at Derby before being given the Chelsea job. Gerrard had no experience before starting at Rangers and after a tricky start has them top of the league.

I think it's fair to say that experience can be of benefit to a manager taking on a role at a big club but it isn't essential. Emery had plenty of experience but couldn't get these players performing. Sacking Arteta would be a mistake, we can't replace him with and Allegri/Pochettino because Arsenal don't have the squad to compete now and aren't willing/able to spend enough to compete in their first season.

The following teams have dropped down from the champions league in to the last 32 knock out round of Europa

SEEDED
Manchester United
Club Brugge
Shakhtar Donetsk
Ajax

UNSEEDED
Krasnodar
FC Salzburg
Dynamo Kiev
Olympiakos

If we can get our act together we should be amongst the favourites alongside the 3 other English teams, Man U, spurs, Leicester and the 3 Italian teams Roma, Milan, napoli

Liverpool were already a dominant force, Dalglish was surrounded by an experienced backroom/bootroom staff and had topclass players. I am not saying he wasn't a talented manager but you hardly needed to be a Brian Clough miracle worker to keep winning trophies with that side.

Hi Ben,

The PL is a tough place to cut your teeth in management. Over the years how many top PL teams have appointed a manager who has never managed before, ever? I can't think of too many. Giggs on a temporary basis if I recall, Shearer temporary, Ljungberg temporary to name a few. Mainly temporary ones, though, until a manager with some experience could be found.

It may not be so much of a risk if you are already a top side with a great set-up and backroom staff and oodles of money to spend but its a tough ask for a rookie with zero managerial experience to rebuild the shambles that is currently AFC.

I recall cries for Henry and Vieira to come back to manage the club at one time and I had to think, maybe its nostalgia. Neither had much management experience. I had a touch of that wanting Adams back at one time. But he was in a coaching role. And our defense was shot at that time.

For now, I am sticking with Arteta. It may have been best if he managed another club prior but he was highly respected by one of the best managers (Pep). That's a huge endorsement. Also, he knew the club as well.

Lastly, I was very surprised at Mourinho's tactics. Not sure what percentage of it was respect for Arteta or managerial nous where he sussed us out fairly simply.

He won 3 league titles, and 2 fa cups!!

Wenger couldn't retain one league title after any title he won. What on Earth are you talking about

Even George was only 42 when he got the job and he had only managed in the championship.

Remember Frank Rijkaard was 36 with no experience when he took Netherlands to a major semi then went to Barca of all places. Neil Lennon had no experience when he took the reins at Celtic and had success.

There’s silliness then there’s this.

As I said, Liverpool were the dominant force in english football at the time, arguably the best run club in the country with an excellent squad and a vastly experienced backroom team to support him and the money and pulling power to recruit the best players in the country. Dalglish was also still an excellent player and enjoyed massive respect as Liverpool's greatest ever player.

Not really that much of a surprise that he did well.

We need to add villas boas to the list of exceptions too as he won the Portuguese double and Europa league in his first season at Porto whilst being 5years younger than Arteta is now.

I think you and Arteta must have been the only people surprised at Mourinho's tactics. He played exactly the same game vs City and beat them 2-0 as well. It is his modus operandi in big games, he sits deep, 100% focus and organisation and relies on fast counter attacks and lethal finishing. It is the same way he's been playing games like this since he was at Porto. It makes the defeat all the more frustrating, we all knew what he'd do and we walked straight in to it - crazy.

I said in the week before I would have liked Arteta to go back to his back 3 and sit in and wait for Spurs to come on to us. Eventually as the home team they would have naturally have had to come forward. Instead Arteta pushed both full backs on and had the sterile possession tossing cross after cross in to spurs CB heads which they mopped up with ease.

And how good was he in the PL?

It’s utterly irrelevant there is no mystical magic that deems our league different to every other. Wenger couldn’t win a European competition like Villa boas did and he was in his 60s.

He was brilliant. I thoroughly enjoyed the work he did.

One thing I've noticed about you TG is that you get all narky if someone else has a different opinion to yours.

Just accept that it's a game of opinions and chill a bit. It is perfectly reasonable (given recent form, team selections and man management etc) for people to harbour doubts over Arteta's stewardship, just as it is perfectly reasonable for people to suggest he needs more time and more transfer windows. Whatever camp you are in doesn't make you stupid or a bad fan.

It is perfectly reasonable to see Arteta's lack of experience as an issue, just as it is to question why he keeps picking Willian and Xhaka and Bellerin, why he chose to ostracise Özil, why he dumped Guendouzi and probably reduced his market value by £20m in doing so, why he chose to embarrass Saliba by not even picking him for the EL squad. Big decisions that have divided opinion and need to start proving him right.

Well said.

I’m not narky at all and in fact I’m not sold on Arteta yet totally myself as it’s too early to tell however I can’t let people talking nonsense pass without comment.

If you genuinely believe that Artetas date of birth is affecting Granit xhakas ability to bring a ball under control in less than 5 touches then frankly somebody should be around to suggest your being daft.

You can shut up n all !

I'm not sure these are the mysteries that people have been claiming. Bellerin is the best right back in the club. Willian is out of form but no worse than half the team but still a talented winger as demonstrated by the Corsa for Gabriel's goal against Wolves.

Özil had produced nothing in a year and it's extremely likely that if he was in the team now most would be demanding that he be dropped.

Guendozi clearly has talent but I don't think anyone can sent he had an attitude problem (and had one at Lorient as well) perhaps it was decided time at a smaller club may give him some perspective.

Saliba has apparently been struggling with some deaths in his family and living outside of France for the first time. By all accounts he has been ok but no world beater in the U-23s. It doesn't seem likely that he he is mentally ready to perform for Arsenal.

As the above demonstrates, Arteta has inherited an unbalanced squad that very few managers in world football could get performing, regardless of experience.

With almost every post on here being a negative one about Arsenal's current state of affairs - myself very much included I thought I'd list out a few reasons to be positive (some of which people may disagree with)

Our last 2 main signings have looked fantastic purchases, Gabriel slotted in very well and leads the defence. Partey from what little we've seen looks like the central midfielder we've needed for years

Saka is the man for all positions - only just 19, a regular with England, left back, left wing, right wing, central mid. The kid is very talented and it will be fantastic watching him grow

Martinelli is nearly back. Another kid who looked superb before his injury. Exactly the kind of dynamic, flexible, pacey, high tempo, high press player we should be looking for more of to build our forward line.

Injuries generally clearing up - I think Partey is our only injured player now.

Old players moving on. In 6 months we will move on Özil, Sokratis, Luiz and Mustafi. That is a huge amount off the wage bill, probably in the region of £30m per season

In another 18 months Lacazette, Chambers, Kolasinac, Elneny all have contracts running out. If we're sensible we move all of them on this summer. With the above that is immediately 8 players moving on. Any time failing players move on it gives rise to optimism for new players coming in. Even if weirdly we didn't want to lose any of these players the hand will be forced.

Pépé's red card v Leeds may, may just have ignited something in him. If ever there was a player in our squad whose natural talent has the potential to catapult him to a much higher level then it is this guy. Lets see what happens

Saliba, remember it wasn't just Arsenal after this kid, lots of top teams wanted him. We're having to wait longer than we thought but he's still so so young and central defence is a tough place for any youngster to come in to, let alone in a dysfunction team like ours. The natural attributes are there, pace, strength, height, poise, passing ability.

Hale end crop - this is not necessarily on the basis that they all turn in to 1st team players but we have a crop of english youngsters who have had plenty of 1st team exposure, if we wanted to sell they should fetch a decent price. We rejected bids of £20m for AMN this summer.

The January transfer window is only 22 days away. At least it feels like the club do know there are multiple issues to be resolved. That is certainly a step forward from the days when Wenger almost blindly refused to add anything to his squad. Whether Edu et al can add what we need is another question - but I think we should agree they know the squad we have is not good enough

We're actually coming in to a decent run of games after a tough start to the season playing city, liverpool, man u, spurs all away, and even Leicester and wolves at home. In our next 9 we have Burnley, Saints, Palace, Newcastle, Chelsea at home, and Everton, West brom, Brighton, Saints away. A real chance to pick up at least 6 wins from 9 there and bring ourselves back up the table.

I'm still fairly optimistic considering where we are. It's not a bad team on paper. Defending used to be our issue now its the attack. When I was despondent about the defense, we didn't have good defenders (wave at Mustafi ). We have good attackers so it seems easier to solve.

Permission to speak, sah!

There's quite the difference between getting the squad to perform and languishing in 15th place in the division. The very least to be expected was a continuation of the form shown at the end of last season, and even that would have been a disappointment given the signings.

As to some of the points above:

Willian starts every PL game. Lacazette gets dropped. Pépé gets dropped. Nelson plays well in the Europa league but can't make the squad.

Nobody expects Özil to be a world-class player anymore. But surely he is worth a place in the squad. Throw him on for 20mins if we are trying to break down a defensive team. Kolasinac is in the squad despite the fact that we have Saka, Tierney and Cédric.

I fully understand his stance on Guendouzi. But why does AMN barely get a look-in?

There are clearly some issues with Saliba, but would it not benefit him to be in the Europa League squad? We were drawn in a simple group. He is playing for the U23s. Would playing EL against weak opponents in empty stadia not be more beneficial? He may be very young, but this kid has a season in Ligue 1 behind him.

Arteta made an impressive start to his managerial career but this season has seen things go backwards and he needs to turn it around. I think he probably will too, but it needs to happen pretty soon.

Runnarson, Chambers, Mari, Mustafi, Cédric, Elneny, AMN, Emile Smith Rowe, Willock, Pépé, Nketiah.

Could be Cédric at left back and Chambers at RB in a back 4
Could be a back 3 with Cédric and AMN as wing backs
Could be smith-rowe on the wing if we play a 4-3-3, or in the No.10 behind a front 2 of Pépé/Nketiah if we play a 3-5-2

Substitutes
7Saka
8Ceballos
16Holding
33Macey
38Balogun
41Cottrell
44Hein
66Azeez

So it looks like the team against Burnley will be the same as that against Spurs...........................

When will we ever see our team play in their proper kit? It seems to have been a long time now.

My prejudice coming in here. Sorry. Not really up on Irish football.

That stadium is a lot posher than I had anticipated. Pitch still looks like a cabbage patch though.

Poxy blue kit.

Any reason why they’re not playing in Dundalk? Have they played all there games in Dublin?