https://x.com/actufoot_/status/20614900 ... -j6VVZXEoA
This was the epitome of what we were up against with the ref on Saturday.
Clean tackle by Rice. Vitinha hand balls it, then grabs Rice’s leg- 2 fouls.
Saka gets his body across Neves and the ref gave a foul against Saka.

This was constant in the second half

The ref had a good game. His reffing had nothing to do with the result.

That's what I worry about. Arguably we had this and let it slip. Will we get a better chance?

It’s what people have continually said about the league. Hell Neville even said it when we finished 5th that Arteta ‘had taken Arsenal as far as he can and should probably leave’
We’ve been rewarded for our consistency, put yourself in the position to win so continuously and you will win.
In the last 4 seasons it’s only the 2 biggest cheats in sport, plus Bayern once and Liverpool once who have beaten us to the biggest prizes.

For everyone plotting or concerned about our downfall what exactly is it about this current team and manager that makes you believe that as a minimum we can’t repeat the levels of this season? Injuries of course, but we’re not reliant on individuals, our main strength is the system and the players knowledge of it - it’s totally repeatable. Football has many factors, yes, but there are far more reasons to believe we can repeat this than there are to think we’ll fall away.

CL is knock out football but there is no reason to consider we can’t beat anyone over two legs. We’ve proven it against virtually everyone and small margins can fall either way. A Khusanov red card and a penalty on Madueke and we’re looking at 3 trophies this season

https://x.com/tfterracemedia/status/204 ... -j6VVZXEoA

A prediction from early April about what would be said about us if we won the league. Love it, keep it flowing, we’ve got under the skin of so many people this season and we win every single argument because we won the league - it ends any argument.

yep reminiscent- Vitinha trying a rugby tackle!

it makes it very hard when a referee selectively protects one team

We have never won the CL. We've only made two finals. We haven't won back to back league titles in 90 years and we have had better teams than the current one.

As things stand, I think we are in with a great chance of retaining our title. We will need to change somethings though. We have to improve the attack and make games less attritional. We will need to rotate more and develop a way of playing that allows us to rest Declan Rice for games.

As for the CL, it is perfectly understandable to think we missed a great chance this year, having had an easy draw and scoring the opening goal in the final. We might not get to the final again in the next decade.

That’s true, but I think we’re probably all in agreement that really we need to try to move away from games being so tight that one small factor for or against us decides it. To use an Emery-ism - be protagonists.

Lost in all the “here’s the VAR and refereeing decisions that handed Arsenal the title” (btw *%^@ you Dale Johnson and the BBC) the most egregious decision all season was the Gyökeres Penalty against Newcastle. You needed a scanning electron microscope and a scenario made up by Johnny Cochran to spin a tale about how the atoms near Pope’s toe nail on the ball made any difference at all to him wiping out Gyökeres and denying a clear goal scoring opportunity. And that goes down as correct decision - good process. That’s why these tables on decisions are mostly nonsense

But nobody talks about it because we made sure to win anyway. We need goals and sorry to say it, 1-0 to the Arsenal needs to get in the bin. There seems to be an acceptance that a 1 goal margin is worth just defending. We need goals goals goals.

And on that I’m honestly pretty concerned about Saka, he looked about to push on to super star and 30 g+a per season and tbh he’s more moved towards the Martinelli/Ødegaard inexplicably losing all form and effectiveness. He won’t get a rest this summer either. I think we’re going to have to do a Pep style rest the players for 5 games at the beginning of the season and see if we can revive them. Interesting times.

We would have a great chance of retaining the title, if we didn't have a huge number of exhausted players who are not going to get a rest and who are carrying overuse related injuries.

Totally agree with Ash here - I think it's worth taking a hit at start of next season to ensure that certain players get a good 4 week break

Saka hasn't been properly fit for a while - his grumbling Achilles is clearly at root of his mediocre form

Zubimendi is shattered

Rice is somehow still running

Saliba injured again and has been carrying stuff for a while

Calafiori prone to injury

Hinacapie with repeated muscular issues, same for Madueke

Martinelli and Trossard both have grumbling calf issues

Ødegaard has been on - off injured all year

There is no way we can compete on all fronts with so many knackered players carrying grumbling chronic injuries

Next season - we need to get this close season rest enforced for those at World Cup - we need to play reserve side in league cup and rotate better

That pops that balloon then

https://x.com/goodbadftblpod/status/206 ... -j6VVZXEoA

You’d hope eventually pundits would move away from the ‘say something controversial to stay relevant’ act.

Scholes says it wouldn’t surprise him if Arsenal finished 4th, in the longer clip he’s talking about Man U winning the league.

McAteer says ‘Arsenal are still a soft touch’

Jesus wept

There were two moments with Saka in the CL final where I felt he let himself down with his usual best attribute - decision making.
He was too selfish and looked to come inside and shoot from 25 yards and he was crowded out and blocked both times when we actually had more players forward and one of the overlap on one of the occasions.

I hope he’s just forcing it because of the frustration of injuries and a stop start 12 months.

Top duel and second ball winners. 5 of the top 7 clubs for this metric were the 5 league champions of the big 5 leagues in Europe.

Arteta knew. That Amazon doc from 5 years ago he was yelling at the players about winning duels

Iraola to Liverpool is interesting.

There are lots of examples of lower prem teams managers join big 6 clubs. The challenge for them is often can they move on from the small team tactic (defensive and counter) to being a team expected to dominate the ball, territory etc. Thomas Frank struggled with this hugely at Spurs, but Iraola’s style is more like a big team, he’s front foot and high press…but this could be another challenge, how many of Liverpool’s team are suited to the high energy, high press? Isak and Ekitike aren’t that, Wirtz isn’t and ended up getting moved to the wing as he couldn’t hack it in the middle. Mac Allister’s legs have gone.

I’ll make an early prediction that if Iraola goes all out for his high press tactic straight away Liverpool are going to have some mixed results and some fairly average teams are going to play through them.

Thank you Jonathan - your dad was one of the main reasons I visited this site so much in the past. His humour was right up my street, as was his kind and reasonable debating style. How he would have loved the playing style of Saka and Ødegaard, and the obvious decency of Declan Rice, which is such a credit to our club. Keep well.

Yes and successful lower/mid table managers have often taken a few years to get there under low expectation and honed squads to suit. If they went to any club they couldn’t immediately replicate results. What iraola has achieved at Bournemouth has been impressive mind you, and like you say, it will be interesting to see which way it goes.

Also big difference between inheriting decent squads and then adding something else to them like Arsene with the back four and then adding attacking flair (and being lucky to have Bergkamp there) or Slot inheriting a good seasoned Liverpool team (and being lucky to have Salah in Balon d’Or form)

As opposed to those inheriting squads with all the juice squeezed out of them (Moyes - Utd) or just basket cases (Anyone - Chelsea) (Also Emery - Us )

What are Liverpool? Not horrendous, but more basket case than decent team with an obvious strength.

So I’ve convinced myself Jr Kroupi is the answer - but don’t think we’ll get him. I really like Yildiz for LW but don’t think he will leave Juve either . I’m not convinced Rogers is the best fit for us especially at 100m or whatever it will take. Alvarez seems destined to go elsewhere for 100m+. I really like the look of Jeremy Monga but he’s still 16 and wants first team minutes which I don’t think we can or should guarantee him.

Not simple this. The easier stuff is right back and perhaps CM. A few around we could go for. Up front is a little complicated by our last two purchases being Eze and Gyökeres.

Glad we’ve got a seasoned operator like Berta advising Arteta but I remain fascinated by what we will try to do and then actually achieve.

like Kroupi but when Arteta was talking about moving up a level and it requiring investment and big decisions to do so I think he was talking about spending the 100/120 million necessary to sign Alvarez.

He feels the only player we are being linked with that would provide clear and obvious ceiling raising improvement out of those we are being linked with. He may prefer Barca who have limited funds but I feel that’s as close as you will get him discussing a transfer directly and that’s who he’s talking about specifically.

Anyone else like Kroupi or even Rogers would be great signings but im not sure you could describe them as needing commitment to move up a level,

Barca’s funds are an absolute mystery. I assume their hands are tied, and also full with all the pulling levers, and then they sign so many players they can’t register them without special treatment. Signing Anthony Gordon for £70m is so odd it looks like money laundering. I sort of assume the Saudis at Newcastle have bunged them the cash.

I make you right on the next level comments and Alvarez, but it’s the temptation to see any certain player as the one who comes in and steps up to the next level that’s so alluring. Wenger certainly had the knack for it. The levels Alex Song for example reached at his peak after seeing his early performances slightly breaks my brain. Same Adebayor - I was adamant adamant there wasn’t a player in there. There was also a nut case - but that’s another story.

Kepa has a £5m release clause in his Arsenal contract just as he did in his Chelsea one. So if someone meets it and wants to be a No.1, we may be in the market for a new gk

Honestly I wouldn’t be that bothered if it was Tommy Setford and he played some 23s as well. Would have been no difference this year other than we could have got away with playing Raya in the league cup final without a contractual or verbal agreement to play Kepa in the cups.

Maybe he was great value in training and supported Raya, but mad that on the pitch at least he just made us weaker for 5m

Resting gk must only be for a mental break. Either way we really need to go full reserves for the league cup next season. It’s a bonus if we get a good draw I think. Full priority goes to the league and champions league.

Very shrewd piece of negotiation from his agent that, basically ensures he’s got the option of a move and 5 million is nothing for a keeper,

You would be surprised if nobody comes in for him really at that price. There’s far worse keepers about whilst i acknowledge he’s not top 4 material

Can’t see us going for Kroupi,

80 million for a 19 year old with 1 season in the league. Would be a massive risk that.

Even PSG would struggle to reconcile the rationality of that.

Ricky being linked with Real Madrid,

wonder if we would be tempted on that, I like the player but if they offered 60 million and we signed a more traditional left back for less.

sell - amazing talent but with his multilligament knee injury, he's always dodgy fitness wise

I think they might entertain that one,

I notice we got linked with a left back from the german league, seems odd considering the players we have.

wouldn’t be a summer transfer window without a new left back and back up keeper

Looks like Jeremy Monga the 16 year old talented left winger from Leicester might be our goat summer signing. Credible reports saying all terms have been agreed with Monga, he’s shown a clear preference for joining us

If we get Rogers we could play a serious English core

MLS, Rice, Eze in midfield
Rogers and Saka on the wings
Madueke, Nwaneri, Dowman and possibly young Monga as back ups

There are stats for everything!

PFA players player of the year award - Rice, Gabriel, Bruno, Raya, Haaland, Cherki

The left wing profile for us is the most interesting part of the summer.

Some players linked I'm not certain fit the profile or style of play we have. Bradley Barcola for example, very good when given large spaces to run in to, but also a bit of an erratic finisher. We need a goldilocks type player who has fantastic pace but is also good in tight spaces with their creativity and finishing. The best player out there with those attributes is Kvaraskelia, but he's going nowhere.
I can see a lot of boxes that Morgan Rogers ticks - goals, assists, running power, big game player, physical, durable, flexible, prem experience. But also there are question marks - is he better as a 10, is he too similar to Eze, does he have the pace to play wide for us?

There is something quite nice about having two different profiles for the wide positions - something Trossard and Martinelli give us but not the level we need.

The over riding feeling I have about our squad is that of course it is excellent, but it is very big, there are some obvious names that will be likely to leave but they are ones who maybe didn't contribute much, then you have a lot of players who are undoubtedly very good players but to bring in exceptional players you then may have to move them on - and that is quite a gamble to move out a solid player who helped you win the league for the risk of an incredible player replacing them.

https://x.com/arsenalballots/status/206 ... -j6VVZXEoA

This is nice

agree

I think it's essential we move on as many older injury prone players as possible, providing we can replace - if we can replace with younger and fitter players this will re-energise the squad

looking at our injury record, it's awful and I think we need to get more depth and a few younger legs in certain areas (left wing, centre midfield and RB in particular)

I’ve been doing a deeper dive on Kroupi Jr.

Concerns,

• not sure he’s a lead the line type forward
• Could play off the left ala Mbappe/Thierry but that makes him another not-quite-winger winger.
• not sure about his pace - could be secretly lightening but I can’t work it out.
• Still only 1 season sample size. Which leads onto..
• Cost - at >£80m I wouldn’t do it, but I think that’s what Bournemouth will be after.
• Scores so many from outside the area and mainly bangers it which is great for the compilations, but seen comments he might be a moments player bit like Eze. Would have enough in the build-up and press?


On the flip side

• His first touch and technique seem impeccable
• seems to have a great attitude and belief in his ability
• has scored goals - bangers and shots from outside the area aren’t a negative.
• goals in the premier league
• Age profile is great. Even if he takes 2-3 seasons to shine he will retain value and still only be 22.

My conclusion is at 65-70 ish and 150k wages I’d do it as it would leave us room to do other business. At 85-90m it’s a punt he’s elite, or will be, which we can’t yet fully know and starts to impede other business.

I think Bournemouth hold onto him for another year unless someone overpays.

Really good breakdown of his play this year here from the official premier league Youtube channel


[not sure why embed isn’t working - Rog? link below]

Who will the new LW be?

Barcola doesn’t strike me as the answer and even then would be expensive. Gordon has gone. Kvwaratskelia no chance would take the whole budget.

doesn’t strike me as an area with many game changers out there this year

The pitch England play NZ on in the international friendly tomorrow looks awful, just squares of turf that have just been laid. I think the Arsenal lads have longer time off, good because I don’t want them anywhere near that pitch.

Rogers may be the answer. He has prem experience and is very robust. Would cost a fortune but it is a safe bet. Then you can buy potential to go with him if needed. Monga is only 16 but has a style a bit like Doku. Mika Godts at Ajax. Alajbegovic at Salzburg. Both names that have been linked

I don’t really see Rogers as a LW for us. Saka is already something of an inside forward and rogers seems similar to Eze. I’m not sure our interest in him is for that position and that they see him as a general squad lifter like Eze

surely the requirement is for a line hugger speed merchant type with an eye for goal