Yup, noticed he tries to get the team going as soon as possible.

Controlled the game fairly comfortably. Do we have anyone who is truly a finisher? Nwaneri looks the real deal. No surprise at that. We better wrap Ødegaard in bubblewrap. We lose him for any extended period of time, we're f*cked. Maybe Rice can fill in that position to some extent if push comes to shove. Not sure anyone else can.

Hoping we get Merino. He'll do better than Jorginho who is mistake prone and slow. I like Jesus' movement but we need a proper number 9. Calafiori is going to fill in well.

Went to the match today. Here’s some thoughts.

Dominated the match and didn’t really need to get out of second gear
Set pieces are still going to be a big threat this season. We were threatening to score from one even before we did. Also noticed that White didn’t stand on the gk for any corner. I think we know he’ll be a marked man by refs for that next year given the air time it was given last. I expect a lot for free kicks for defences this season as refs get wise to blocking moves etc

Noticed Saka attacking the back post a lot, he had at least 3 headers at the back post which I rarely see from him.

Ødegaard runs the team. Also noticeable the team look for Zinchenko a lot to run the game from his inverted left back position

Martinelli had a lot of good runs behind but never quite got his feet sorted in to a good shooting position.

Havertz had a very quiet game up top, couldnt get in to it. His work off the ball is great, didn’t hold it up as well as he has done today. Feel there is still a need for a greedy clinical striker in this team.

Partey and the defence were all good. No real alarms. Gabriel must be a nightmare to play against, he’s just so aggressive all the time.

Calafiori has a decent turn of pace, is brave, likes a tackle and is comfortable on the ball. Looking forward to seeing more but Zinchenko should start the season.

When you watch live so see more of the pitch and don’t just follow the ball it is really noticeable how well drilled we are off the ball and on the ball. In any given situation the players move automatically to the shape they need to be in, every action from us or them meant a reaction from someone else and it didn’t take long to notice the same moves and set up. I think we’ll be really hard to score goals against and our defence is still probably our best element.

Merino will add something to our midfield. I’d like a pacey forward, feels like we don’t make the most of transitions and turnovers with an inability to go right at teams before they recover.

All in all we look in good shape for the season.

The first clip contains nothing that any sensible person might think controversial - a recognition of many people's concern with mass immigration and knife crime. And no wink at camera.

The second clip - again responding to many people's concerns - was from four years ago! People are well aware of the locations of asylum seekers - because they live near them!!

Have your view on Farage by all means but to suggest he was responsible for the rioting last week is straight out of the Starmer playbook - wake up!

By the way in June Farage was twice physically attacked during the General Election - the perpetrators still await judgement.

You should be aware that Nigel is getting together a force of election candidates ready for when Starmer either dose a runner or calls an election.

With the backing he appears to have from the people nothing that the Tories do will harm him and in fact they could well be annihilated as will Labour after the
loonie lefties take over. It will be between us and them Left against Right. I can't wait...............

You are worrying me now Old Man. I never pegged to as an apologist for the far right.

Have you declared these allegiances on your immigration forms?

Sounding increasingly like a nutter with posts like this, Chris.

I hope you’re aware - or ‘woke’ as in the original meaning of the term.

The term 'far right' is thrown around with abandon these days towards anybody and everybody. It's becoming ridiculous. 'Far right' once meant the few loonies on the extremes. Now it's anybody who thinks 750,000 extra people arriving into the country in one year (2023) is probably unsustainable.

When presented with his silver medal for Olympic football Michael Olise immediately took it off. I hate players instantly taking off their runners up medals in football competitions - it’s all for show, trying to show people that they are such ferocious winners that being a runner up disgusts them - but this is the Olympics where a silver medal it’s like a runners up medal in a carabao cup final, you’re there for your country as well not just yourself.

Wan Bissaka signing for West Ham for £15m but Man U also paid him off £5m to pay up his contract.

I wonder why he would get attacked.

It’s nobody’s right to tell another person how to vote. None of my business each to their own.

However let’s be clear here. If you are voting for someone who publicly speaks at far right events then fundamentally you are a xenophobic. (This lot AFD are anti semitic to their core)

https://news.sky.com/story/farage-says- ... y-11026278

There’s no excuse for it even if they lie to you that they will help on capital gains.

If you can’t see that people have been whipped into a frenzy by these far right politicians and actors I would say you are deluded. Last week really wasn’t the Britain I grew up in no matter what anyone says. It’s been coming for a while

You aren’t allowed to label people burning libraries and looting bakeries as far fright. Get a grip.

You can be quite concerned about immigration like I am whilst pointing out everyone involved that stuff last week was unacceptable. It doesn’t have to be one way or another, you can be balanced

We are a small country.

There is already a housing shortage and house prices are sky high as a result, making it impossible for many to get on the property ladder.

Doctors appointments and hospital appointments are taking longer and longer and the NHS's resources are already massively overstretched.

How is it a good idea to let in more and more people and give them free housing and heathcare plus other benefits when we can barely cope with the numbers we already have?

This is particulary relevant to the illegal ones whose backgrounds cannot be checked. We are potentially letting in murderers, rapists, career criminals, religious fanatics etc etc.

What could possibly go wrong.

Watching the Lyon game it seems ever more clear that we need a no.9 and a pacy winger with great end product.

We are controlling games like never before but not killing teams. We had numerous great situations yesterday but lacked the quality final ball and/or finishing to really end the game as a contest.

Third kit launched today. I prefer it to the away kit. Third kit is turquoise and purple with dark blue/purple shorts. It also has just the canon as the badge and the old style adidas trefoil logo. It will sell very well I think.

Agreed. Some pace to kill team in transition and a clinical striker for the intricate stuff around the box, a player who has excellent movement and can score either first touch or a quick shift and hit. Is there a player that does both? Maybe not for under £70m!

I see the obvious debate of whether we can win the league, and many neutral pundits saying Arsenal HAVE to win it this year. I find this an odd one. I’d ask the question are we favourites? No City are. Should we replace Arteta if he finishes 2nd again? Of course not.

Winning this league is as difficult as it’s ever been with Pep’s City. There is not much more we could do last year. Perhaps we need City to drop rather than expecting us to elevate it. When Liverpool won the title Pep’s City only got 81 points I think.

Yes, we basically have only one in Martinelli. Saka’s relative lack of pace isn’t talked about much, and rightly so, but if he had real separation pace over 30 yards as well as 3 this would be less of an issue. But it’s possibly why he has avoided injury to the extent he has. The explosive players are the ones with the hamstrings going. I guess it’s why Kai is probably running this very moment with no risk, if anything he’s implosive

Brook Norton-Cuffy ready to sign for Genoa for up to £3.5m with add ons included and a sell on clause. Charlie Patino likely to be next to be sold

That assessment would have you labelled ‘far right’ in the media. Which I’m certain you’re not.

Around 20% of NHS workers wernt born in the UK. In London this is nearer 30%. You can’t just say we are stopping migration because we are a small country without impacting the things you are concerned about. It’s more nuanced than your understanding.

Don’t be silly. Burn a few wheelie bins though and you could get called a nazi and I certainly wouldn’t have a problem with that

Really. So were the Romany and Muslim rioters in Leeds when the bus was torched Nazi’s as well?

Have to say I’m not a fan of this years kits. The worst batch yet since adidas came in.

Nope those riots were about a difference circumstance. Equally as unnecessary and divvy.

See this is the thing. If you ever reach the point where you are counting civil disturbances occurring against peoples colour or religion then you are a truly lost soul.

How much of a *%^@*** problem and impact are the Romany community having on your life mate.

None whatsoever. You were the one who started bandying about the Nazi b%*&s%*^, I was pointing out your lack of balance and your hypocrisy.

What hypocrisy, if you are discussing far right people smashing up town centres up and down the country you now need to counter it with “well the Muslims commit crimes too on occasion” otherwise you are a hypocrite *%^@*** hell have we really reached that point.

All crime is not on, immigration is out of hand but the people who are interested in creating some kind of black/brown v white league table are saddos who have probably been listening to Farage too much. Braverman, Farage, Robinson and musk have a lot to answer for. Nobody gave a *%^@ about this stuff growing up, part of life.

Nketiahs move to Marseille is off.

Not sure where this ends up and apparently they have been playing dickheads changing the parameters of the deal. Think we could struggle to shift him. Watching him run around pretending to be busy next season would be hard to take.

Totally agree it’s a massively complex and nuanced issue, illustrated perfectly by total immigration AFTER Brexit with a conservative government in situ going UP.

But your last line, no one cared about what when we were growing up? Surely exclusionary nationalism issues have been awful forever? Going back to the Windrush and the Irish before that and several other population influxes you care to mention. This current “unrest” is awful, but seems a bit whipped up and if anything I have the feeling it will die down and go away quite quickly relative to other similar issues in the past.

If we run City close to the last or second to last game and end up 2nd this season and next season, 90 points, but no trophies, but semi finals CL, finals of either domestic cup in that time, do we still keep Arteta?

So what proportion of immigrants coming into the country in the last few years now work for the NHS? I imagine its a tiny amount.

What proportion of immigrants coming into the country have come in to fill skills gaps. Again, probably a small number.

Bringing in workers to fill skills gaps is one thing but allowing immigrants in simply because they want a higher standard of living and providing them with housing and benefits straight away makes little sense unless you are deliberately trying to alienate a section of the population.

Allowing illegal immigransts in with little or no background checks is just stupid and asking for trouble.

I've read about people being on the council house list for 10 years or more and immigrants being given them. How is that fair and how does it even make sense?

I'm not sure this is actually a racism issue. People are seeing two-tier policing and two-tier governing and asking themselves just how this is fair.

Starmer has been talking about early release for prisoners but is now filling the prisons with keyboard warriors and kids who should know better.

What about the two guys who attacked the police at the airport, why are they not being fast-tracked to one of His Majesty's prisons for a long stretch.

If Labour want to be stern with sentencing I've no problem with that, in fact I welcome it, but be even handed and treat everyone the same irrespective of colour or religion. If you live in this country then you are subject to the laws of this land which should be the same for everyone.

You must be aware there are minimum sentencing guidelines in the Uk if convicted right ? It’s just not possible to (sorry for this) let all the ethnic people off and imprison the whites. Anyone suggesting otherwise has bought into Farages and Robinsons far right crap. 2 tier policing ? Anyone spouting that crap has bought in 100%

Your first point. All in the public domain mate. The proportion of NHS staff with Asian and African nationalities has risen in recent years

The proportion of NHS staff reporting an Asian nationality has risen from 4.0% in 2016 to 8.6% in June 2023. Reported African nationality has risen from 1.8% to 3.8% since 2016.
Reported EU nationality rose from 2.9% in 2009 to a high of 5.6% in 2017.

Keyboard warriors ? Yeah that’s Elon Musks nonsense. Btw I have no problem the old bill locking up people who have called Bukayo Saka the N word on twitter because he missed a penalty. (Tories did that not starmer ) Do you ?

The 2 in Manchester? Bound to get nicked after the CPS review all the evidence. They must want to ensure the right charges are applied. You can’t go into an airport and start lamping the armed police.

The victim complex being created by some obvious wrong uns in the UK is incredible.

Absolutely when I grew up there was plenty of institutional racism and examples of it, BNP existed but were vilified largely. However my point was regardless of skin tone white, black brown or whatever the vast majority of people in the UK got on well and enjoyed the cultural aspects of British freedom like great music, food and culture and had no fundamental interest in counting a respective crime table by ethnicity, trying to degrade other communities etc etc etc . This is fundamentally not of the British creed I associate with or family or anyone I would associate with. I would hardly call some of the comments here racist but they certainly go against the British creed I observed as a kid.

This situation is self created with through despicable politics, bad actors like Robinson and Musk and the cuts made to social services like police.

I hope your final sentence is true but I have a feeling this is not going away anytime soon Ash.

The window has been very quiet, teams fear FFP now, I can still see a lot of panicked business in the last few weeks of the window and it will likely be a lot of loans with option to buy or maybe obligation to buy. Bournemouth need a striker.

Ajax made an enquiry to take Ramsdale on loan but Arsenal want a permanent deal. Worse case I think Ramsdale has to go on loan to almost protect his value.

Absolutely. If anyone had an opinion to maybe get rid of Arteta then you have to come up with a replacement. Who would replace him and give us the only thing that we’re currently missing - a big trophy?….and be a realistic manager to join us.

Get real TG, there is quite clearly two-tier policing and two-tier governing going on.

You saw the gangs of asians on the news brandishing knives, machetes and swords on the streets of Birmingham in full view of police officers? How many were nicked. The police just stood there and watched.

They also think that by wearing masks or head scarves they can protect their identity and this is another issue. You can't prosecute afterwards based on CCTV evidence so you have to arrest them there and then but the police appear to have neither the allotted manpower or the inclination to do so.

If I walked down the street brandishing a knife, machete or sword I'd expect to get nicked and rightly so.

How many of the romanian gypsies involved in the Leeds rioting will be prosecuted. Probably just a token few.

Ex police officers have openly admitted that they were encouraged to go easy on ethnic groups for fear of inflaming racial tensions.

The laws of this land should apply equally to everyone, irrespective of colour or religion. Not one rule for some and a different rule for the others.

Hi Rich,

Time is running out to get some of these deals done.

I dislike loans with options to buy because they clearly favour the buyer.

What worries me is the ease with which the term "far right" is now able to be used to describe anybody who wishes to comment on what are clearly major concerns for the overwhelming majority of the population. Until we have a proper, grown up and inclusive national conversation about such issues as mass immigration (legal and illegal), border security, everyday crime affecting communities and the divisive unfairness of social housing allocations, then the problems we have seen on the streets are not going away soon. For those who abhor Farage, Reform or social media, they should know by now that the far-right bogeyman approach is not going to cut it with the average person in our country.

The actions of the Prime Minister and certain Chief Police Officers in treading all over the separation of powers of the judiciary is another alarming development gaining little if any comment from those who tell us they love democracy!

A very big difference to the past immigrations you mention is scale and values. When Blair took over in the late 90s the immigration to emigration figure was roughly plus 40,000 per annum. By the time of Brown's defeat in 2010 it was around plus 350,000. Today it stands at somewhere between 650,000-750,000. This is quite an incredible increase and on the government's own projections is growing into the future. Our country has never experienced such a pace of change in immigration in so short a time. Previous immigrations pale into insignificance while the weight on public services grows ever heavier.

Then we have values. While retaining their identity, traditions and religious beliefs, our earlier immigrants largely bought into the society they joined, even if life was not always comfortable for them. I think we know it is different now, and not for the better. The grooming gangs, female genital mutilation, numerous proscribed Islamist terrorist groups - we could go on.

You are probably right about the current riots dying off, but the bigger picture is scary.

G’Day Old Man

In your post, you sought to mount a defence for Farage’s initial remarks, which were widely held to be (at the least) unhelpful and (at the worst) incendiary. At the least, he did nothing whatever to quell the rioting. At the worst, he offered justification for the actions of the rioters.

Farage is by any definition – and by common consent amongst the average people in this country - a far-right politician. That description really does cut it with everyone. Are you really trying to say he isn’t?