Well as much as I’m happy for you to claim it, I was actually talking about that sentient exhaust pipe Kiwi.

I think we’re in agreement, possibly all in agreement, that Arsenal would massively benefit from getting it forward quicker at least now and again.

My point, demonstrated perfectly by Rice turning into a defensive intercept missile, was he gives us insurance to being countered on from faster more direct attacking football as well as having the engine to join fast breaks.

Yes, that was what came to mind coconut husks going through the wood chipper to make bran muffins and underappreciation of Declan and that sort of thing.

This famous backward sprint has almost become a meme
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1250441079555243

so it turns that Zubimendi is like really really good at football.

Like really excellent.

Didn’t go yesterday will be at Leeds but watched and wowzers we love a spanish midfielder at Arsenal. Looks a very intelligent footballer.

we have a season of shite Guinness and spanish footballing masterclasses every week. *%^@*** BRING IT ON!

p.s Mosquera only cost 15 million or something ? That looks literal robbery. His previous club must be so so pissed off with that. How on earth did that happen.

Diakate to Bournemouth for £35m. Thiaw to Newcastle for £35m

Kiwior is an established CB playing for a top team, no way should we accept anything less than £35-40m if teams come in for him

Isn’t he just. I’ve been really impressed with him in an understated way.

Palace beat Liverpool on pens after a 2-2 draw to win the Community Shield.

Liverpool looked strong going forward but a bit vulnerable defensively. Their strengths outweigh their weaknesses but at CB and actually in the front 3 positions they are not deep in the squad
CB = Van Dijk, Konate, Gomez…..Gomez is already injured and VvD is 34
Fwd = Salah, Ekitike, Gakpo….but after that they only have Chiesa as a natural forward player, Elliot and Jones can play there.

I expect them to make more signings but their depth wasn’t tested at all last year as everyone stayed fit. Let’s see

Of course because Palace win the community shield every sports pundit will agree it’s a proper trophy.

https://x.com/footbalihub/status/195457 ... -j6VVZXEoA

First game first awful ref and var decision. How is this not a penalty to Palace, this was late on at 2-2.

Declan is selling his gaff if anyone is interested. A bit of a doer upper

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/165078269

I thought he lived in Kingswood, I know he’s about to move to Wentworth.

Blo-ody hell. It’s gone up over 4 MILLION since he bought it in 2021.

I’d struggle with some of the decor tbh so, not for me.

You mean the English super cup that Liverpool lost? Yes that’s always been a trophy for me… I didn’t appreciate Ekitike’s brilliantly taken goal and silky touches. Nearly ruined my Sunday.

If they don't sign some defenders they could find themselves in big trouble. Wharton was very good at threading balls through and in midfield they didn't seem to have much defensive solidity.

argh wrong link. This is it.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/ ... el=RES_NEW

It was a bit too cramped for me. Couldn't stick it any longer....

I’m not convinced Arteta will start Gyökeres v Man U. I think Arteta puts so much stock in the off the ball work he may not consider Gyökeres fully up to speed with our patterns and positional play - obviously Havertz knows it inside out. Same reasons for Madueke and Martinelli.

So sounds like Zinchenko is off to turkey for Fenerbahce

The Totts want Savinho from city apparently. Would be an odd move from city to sell.

Mosquera has already played RB, RCB and LCB for us in pre-season. For £13m up front and only just turned 21 he looks like another very, very good signing

Zinchenko would link up with Mourinho. He's fallen down from his top level but still must be a draw for players wanting to work under him

Plenty of promise from him but his output was poor, just 1 league goal last season.
Haaland is deadly but he is not involved much in the game so is reliant on those around him to create, City's wingers just haven't been anywhere near the elvel they had. When Sane and Sterling were at their peak they were both chipping in 15-20 goals a season. Now City have Grealish, Savinho and Doku - and they have hardly any goals between them.
City have made some really interesting changes in the past 2 windows - £400m of signings will do that - but going to (what it seems like) more attacking full backs rather than CB playing wide. Also bringing in Cherki who has creativity and maverick abilities in spades - but can he do the off the ball work Pep demands? Reijnders I think is so tailor made for the prem, hard running, powerful gets goals from midfield - I think he'll turn out to be an excellent signing for them. Rodri coming back (although still injured) will be huge for City. They need to get a tune out of Foden and they need to keep their defence injury free. I think they'll be up there this season.
City are a bit the opposite of us, I think they find it easy against weak teams that sit in and defend, but harder against teams that go toe to toe with them. Their depth in the squad is the best in the league in terms of the players on the bench being closest in ability to the ones in the first team but I wonder if they lack a bit of match winning quality - this always used to be their strength

Grealish going on loan to Everton. £100m player just shunted out on loan, City have already bought 1-2 wingers to replace him. City have effectively infinite finances which is obviously an advantage but they can't buy everyone so other big teams can also spend quite a bit and buy their own very good players, where City have the big advantage is being able to do it over and over, no transfer mistake is ever felt as they just move them on and a new shiny toy comes in.

Palace lose their appeal.

Palace lost their appeal but city and Chelsea can literally do whatever they want.

I thought we looked better for having Rice slightly deeper, it allowed him to interchange with Zubimendi and to arrive later in the attack with the play in front of him rather than being positioned in the oppositions defensive line.
It also works well with Calafiori given license to really attack and pop up in unusual positions down the left. Timber also did a bit of this when he switched to left back for a bit. Finally, it keeps Rice a bit more out of the way of the outside in runs that Martinelli makes off the ball and where he looks most dangerous.

Liverpool

Strengths: New signings Wirtz and Ekitike look very good and significant upgrades. Spine of a title winning team still in place. The midfield looks really well stacked and good depth. They’re probably the best transition team in the league and the tweaks Slot made last year worked really well. Have genuine match winners. Defending champions, know how to get it over the line

Weaknesses: Depth in key positions at CB (only 3 CB and one is Gomez) and actually the 3 forward positions are looking a bit light. Gakpo, Ekitite, Salah looks very good as a starting front 3 but after that its Chiesa, Elliot or an out of positions Jones or a very young Ngomoha. Interest in Isak and Guehi helps. Also the drop off from Gravenberch is still quite big. Lots of new signings to integrate in to the first team, and the introduction of Wirtz (in whatever position he plays) means a change of tactics. VVD and Salah getting older and maybe less motivated?

Arsenal

Strengths: The most settled starting 11 of the top teams. The defence is the best in the league and has very good depth and flexibility. Have added depth where it was needed in CM, wide and finally a striker. Close to 2 very good players in each position, Are now seasoned and experienced players at the top level. I think Zubimendi will be the best addition Arsenal make this summer.

Weaknesses: Creativity is still an issue, overreliance on Saka and Ødegaard (who had a poor season) and set-pieces, still a tendency to pass in the horseshoe of death pattern against deep blocks. A tendency to not score enough goals when on top. Threw away 9 leads to end up drawing games last year – 18 points dropped thanks to a tendency to thinking 1-0 is enough or relaxing after going ahead. Left wing is still an issue where a top class winger was/is required this summer. How is the energy and motivation after 3 2nd place finishes. Is there still a risk that Arsenal have raised their floor but not their ceiling? Who are the match winners who bail you out when you’re not playing well? Do they know how to get over the line?

City

Strengths: Insane depth across virtually every position. Still the best team in possession in the league. Abundance of creativity and flair in wide areas and some very exciting younger players coming through to really beef out the squad. Pep is still the manager. Haaland will still score a lot of goals. Reijnders is a great signing, Cherki will create in abundance against low blocks.

Weaknesses: Who else can contribute goals apart from Haaland? Too many injury prone players? Too easy to score transition goals against, the defence showed significant cracking last year and have they potentially lost their fear factor which was worth so much to them for years.

Chelsea

Strengths: Deep squad in attacking areas. Exciting new players motivated to make their mark. Trending on an upward curve of improvement, likely at a quicker rate than the other 3 above. Caicedo and Palmer are as good as any in their position in the league. Ability to keep on spending potentially adding very good players like Xavi Simons. Had a good pre-season – possibly being fitter thanks to the club world cup

Weaknesses: GK, nowhere near top class. Defence is also weak. Cucurella is good but they don’t have a CB of the quality of the other 3 top teams and James is often injured at RB. Involvement in the CL will mean 2 games a week for their best players, they aren’t used to it. Very young squad, do they have the know how to compete in a title race? Will the club world cup and a lack of proper rest do for them in the mid part of the season?

Just watch the premier league rush to replicate this in no time at all. I bet Fenway and KSE are looking thinking “why can’t we do that”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... ent-sports

It is only a matter of time. Don't the big clubs make £5-10m per match for the pre-season friendlies in the US or far east?

Grealish on loan to Everton with a £50m buy option. Crazy price, he’ll be 30 by the time the buy option becomes available. It would make him the 6th most expensive 30+ year old in history. A player who for some reason avoids all scrutiny on his awful performances.

I don’t dislike Grealish, I hope he does well at Everton but £50m is based on no logic at all

Everton’s training ground is closer to Cheshire (where lots of Manchester based footballers live) than City’s!

I’m not sure what it says about Grealish, but it’s certainly an easy move for him in that regard.

Watching him at city he became a free kick winner. Lots of seasons he was the “most fouled player” (fouls actually *%^@*** given *cough *cough Saka) but watching him he was half clever half snide in his technique and I think it massively stalled his game. Half the “fouls” at least were dives in reality. He became a bit aimless like Martinelli when you wondered if some of his crosses were actually just attempts to win a corner.

You lose attacking impetus if in reality you aren’t fully focused on the actual goal. Plus I reckon the hates Pep. That man would do my head in.

Hmmn.

Might be a difficult sell to Mrs top gun


https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/158444129

The estate agent has done a pretty shite job there. That place is 1565 sq ft. It's bigger than my house but the photos give no sense of that size.

He won every trophy available but his individual game was transformed from exciting maverick attacking midfielder to free-kick winning machine who just recycles possession. I hope he gets his mojo back because he was great to watch in his Villa days.

Isak is clearly a knob

My thought for the day

Agreed 19 - but in reality, he's only doing what what Big Vik did to get away from Sporting.

Footballers, eh?

It’s slightly different to Gyökeres as he had a gentlemen’s agreement he could leave if a certain offer came in.

I wouldn’t want to live in Newcastle either if I’m honest.

Tottenham seem to be in for Eze. Thats another fan meltdown if they get him.

Does seem odd we haven’t moved that forward. Maybe we aren’t actually that interested.

I don’t really buy the line we have to sell first. The club must be confident we can offload some deadwood even if it’s loaning them out to get them off the wage bill. Is selling Zinchenko moving the needle to signing a 60 million pound attacker. I doubt that. Wonder what’s up.

Strasbourg are part of the Chelsea multi ownership model, with 2 games to go last season they were in with a shout of CL places having gone on a great 12 game unbeaten run, 4 points from their last two games would have sealed 3rd place and condemned Chelsea to the Europa league rather than Champions league due to the multi club rules. Strasbourg lost both their last two games and finished 7th, one of those they lost with a last minute own goal.

Multi club ownership needs to be forbidden

Sometimes bigger clubs use a tactic to let a smaller club negotiate an acceptable fee, then come in and match that bid knowing they’ve been working on the player themselves in the background.
If it’s between us and spurs for Eze I think the only way he goes there is if we drop out completely.
Arsenal IS Eze’s dream move, if he moves to spurs he basically gives up ever coming to Arsenal

Three out of the last five seasons 89 points has been sufficient to win the EPL. To get to that figure here is a possible path.

Top 5 - need to win our home games and take 3 points off them in the season
Liverpool,
Man City
Chelsea
Aston Villa
Newcastle

Mid group - need to take 4 points from them
Man Utd
Brighton
Crystal Palace
Spurs
Westham

Bottom Group - need to win home and away to take all 6 points
Brentford
Bournemouth
Burnley
Everton
Fulham
Leeds
Sunderland
Wolves
Notts Forest

That will give you 89 points

There's no question but that Arteta should have a points target in his head. But, you also need to play the season as it develops. Liverpool were very good at that last season. We have a tough start, but not only do we need to get through it, we need to carry momentum forward and win the stretch of "easier games". As the cliché goes, you can't win the league before Christmas but you can certainly lose it.