Then that only shows people were expecting too much. (No change there then)

But so much was being made about his being so comfortable on the ball, it’s hardly surprising some were expecting more of his passing. I’ve actually been more impressed with his defending than his passing.

Maybe some totting up

New striker 80-100 million
New backup striker 20-35 million
Midfielder 40 million
Winger 25m
Centre back 25m
Fullbacks say 40 for a pair.

Over 200 million in spending worst case if that article is true, I suppose some of this would be offset by the departures of guendouzi, Torreira, mavropanos, aubameyang, possibly ainsley, Mari and nelson.

His distribution is very good. He often hits cross field passes that find our wingers in space. I think our fans are expecting 75yard Hollywood type assists. Divs

Also Funny how nobody was moaning about his distribution when our back 4 looked very solid before the injuries and peoples opinions seem to have changed when we have had to put Cédric, Tavares, Nketiah & Lokonga back in our side. Obviously those 2 things aren’t linked at all.

I wonder if you’re making a bit too much of this. Cédric has let nobody down since being in the side recently, Tavares played well at Southampton and Lokonga was decent enough. I also doubt anybody was expecting 75 yard Hollywood assists.

Perhaps various people mean different things by ‘comfortable on the ball’. But it made me expect a higher level of passing than, based on the evidence so far this season, White appears to have.

The worry is that if we don't get fourth (as is looking likely) we won't be able to attract the calibre of player we need, even if we do have the funds and will. We don't need another frustrating transfer window chasing basically unattainable players. Having said that, we didn't do too badly last summer and hopefully we can see a repeat of that sort of business.

It's probably important for our progress that we get into the Europa, but it really does not set the pulse racing at all!

I must say the fans on this forum aren't too bad. Elsewhere on social media it isn't the case. The keywords are 'idiotic' and kneejerk'.

"hooray, you have seen the light. I just hope the board doesnt let him waste more money"

I'm amazed that such dribbling morons have learned how to type!

Hi Decaf,

Seasons without european football are pretty boring. At least with the europa we get some midweek football and a chance for some of the back-ups and youngsters to get some game time, I think we have suffered this season with a lack of games for them to gain experience and maintain match sharpness.

I know its not like have been playing scintillating football but an Arsenal game is an Arsenal game and I'd rather see some kind of european football, plus there is the carrot of a CL place for the winner of the Europa League.

Imagine saying stuff like that

Our transfer business last summer was superb. Some of the things you read are just crazy aren’t they.

I don’t really care about the europa league to be honest. Not fussed and I really don’t think it helps us much apart from giving our fans more football to watch.

I actually find it somewhat irritating watching Pépé, Nketiah and elneny look like superstars against Dundalk then fluff their lines back in the premier league at the weekend.

At this point in time I think we have a realistic chance of winning the Europa whereas winning the Champions League would take a miracle. I would much prefer to qualify for the Champions League than the Europa. But I feel the Europa would offer a better chance of winning something.

Mind you, even if we get into the Champions League we could feasibly come third in the group and end up in the Europa anyway. So that amplifies my preference for qualifying for the Champions League.

Couldn’t agree more Decaf. Compared to some other internet chat rooms I read, this forum with very few exceptions has far more rational and sensible observations than others.

Logically, you are perfectly correct. However, I just find it so dull and endless. Knowing that we are probably going to get all the way to the semis and then get knocked out by a team like Villareal or Dortmund or Rangers or Olympiakos doesn't help either. Getting thrashed by Barca and Bayern is much more interesting.

Making sure we make Europa league as a minimum is important. Yes there are dreary games that don’t tell us much about our own team and the thurs/sunday is a pain and can affect league form but, players from ‘second tier’ teams which is where we’re likely shopping would see it as important to be in Europe and seasons out of Europe really affect our uefa coefficient ranking, dropping us down the rankings for when we might eventually get back in the champions league. The lower down we drop the more likely we face a group of death and get knocked out at the first attempt

Son has 34 goals from an xG of 22 since the start of last year. I think he is probably the most elite finisher in the league. Not in terms of your 6 yard box poacher, but 1v1 I can't think of anyone better, including Salah and Kane.
It always amazes me that there are never any rumours linking Son to a real big club. He'd be perfect, guaranteed goals and assists from wide, rarely injured, energy and workrate, humble and a marketing dream with his following in South Korea and Asia in general.

Lots of reports that Haaland to City will be done next year (£500k/week wage), whihc makes it more likely that Kane stays at Spurs. Kane and Son two of the best players in the league for countless years could finish their career there and without a single trophy.

Other than simply saying 'get better players' or 'get more depth' the main areas I want to see improvement from us are:

Counter attacking
An ability to be a proper threat on the counter attack. We've shown we can do a low block, but when was the last time we looked consistently threatening on the counter attack? We have scored counter attack goals when we've been pressed high but those are passing moves and very rare due to their complexity. What I want is a genuine threat when the opposition have committed men forward in attack. That involves direct dribbling, fast passing and a willingness of the forward player to run in to space.

Come-backs
So far this season we've been behind in 13 games, only twice have we salvaged anything from the game. The late 2-2 draw v Palace and the late win v Wolves. If we go behind we struggle to get anything from the game. For me this is a bit of a consequence of having a young side without star names or obvious leaders. There isn't anyone who is just going to drag you back in to a game with a moment of individual genius, or someone who is going to decide I'm going to grab this game by the scruff of the neck and drag everyone else with me.

Goals from crosses
We fling a lot of crosses in at players who are not good in the air, or we don't commit enough players in the box for knock downs or 'chaos'. However, if you watch a lot of goals scored from crosses I don't think most are because the attacker has simply been better in the air than the defender, it is movement and delivery. Most decent strikers in the league are on the move in the box, gambling, they have an appreciation of space and anticipation. We don't have that and haven't had that for a long time despite our £100m outlay on two prime strikers.

Son recently extended his contract so he’s obviously happy there, regardless of the lack of trophies. I kind of admire his loyalty to Tottenham, as I do Kane’s whose contract expires in 2024.

https://www.spotrac.com/epl/tottenham-h ... contracts/

The loyalty is to be admired but it is frustrating considering the difficulty we had in keeping our best players when we went through a lean period of no trophies and had a stadium to pay off. Perhaps we were far more willing to sell but I think our players were also far more willing to push for the move. You never hear a peep from Son about wanting to move and last summer was the first time we heard anything from Kane

It is quite frustrating and hard to understand actually. And Spurs have two of them.

Son averages 14 goals a season in 6 seasons - never fewer than 11. Kane averages 22 goals a season and never lower than the 12 he currently has this season (or 17 he got a couple of seasons ago).

These two are just about as close as you can get to a sure thing, certainly in the prem but it wouldn't be hard to see them succeed in another country as well.

If Kane had gone to City for £150m last year I think in the long term that would have served them better. Ditto Son if they got £80m+ if someone had offered that. The reason why is because Spurs have won nothing with both players at their peak, each of their values will fairly rapidly decrease now as they both get close to 30, the better long terms strategy would have been to sell both for £200m+ and reinvest that in 7-8 players to see if you can break through that trophy ceiling. I understand why Spurs have fought tooth and nail to keep both but there is a point where selling is the best option - every club bar 3-4 in the world will have to face this decision - and for me it is one of the reasons why Arsenal got in the pickle we did because we were too stubborn in not selling key assets when they wanted to leave and instead they rode their contract down and we were left with no player and no money.

Is it time to give either Pépé or Martinelli a run up front v Chelsea.

Chelsea play with a back 3, potentially playing a lone striker who is very much a No.9 (Lacazette/Nketiah) is relatively easy for that back 3 to deal with. Why not spring a surprise with a striker who will drift wide or run the channels rather than be more static. A back 3 with no one to mark forces them to make a decision that they won't be forced to make if they play up against a traditional 9.

The other way is do what brentford did and play 2 up, which seemed to give Chelsea all sorts of problems. The problem with that is we don't have a player like Toney and don't have a front 2 with the level of understanding that he and Mbeumo obviously have

Awful news about Ronaldo. Can't imagine what that's like.

Terrible news, many things in the world are far bigger than football. I've seen he's obviously not playing tonight and Anfield had applauded and sang you'll never walk alone for him in the 7th minute of the game tonight in a show of support.

This must be one of the weakest Man U teams in recent memory, we simply HAVE to beat them at the weekend.

Man U are 3-0 down, it means we go up to 5th as it stands. Let’s hope we don’t return the favour and lose heavily to Chelsea and hand that place back to Man U.

Absolutely terrible news.

Good idea as I think we need to go for the win tomorrow night. If we beat Chelsea and Manchester United we claw back some of the points in harder matches to those we’ve dropped in the last three winnable games.

Pleased for Fulham whose promotion back to the Premier League was confirmed by their 3-0 win against Preston tonight.

I see Fulham and Norwich as similar yo-yo clubs. Up one year, down the next. They’re both too good for the Championship but not good enough for the Premier League. If that trend continues Fulham will get relegated from the Premier League next year, and Norwich will be promoted from the Championship next season.

The question for Fulham is whether they can find a way of avoiding relegation next season.

Class act by the Kop

Sad for him and spouse

Barca is emulating us. Lost 0-1 at home to Cadiz. Scorer is a certain Lucas Perez. Name ring a bell?

If Man City sign Haaland, having already signed Alvarez (South America’s player of the season) in January there may be a chance for us to swoop for Gabriel Jesus. Jesus only has 1 year left on his contract, can play centrally and wide right, can press high and knows Arteta.

I think it’s far more likely he renews his deal with City but I think he’d make a good signing for us alongside a more bullish CF like Nunez from Benfica. £80-90m for the pair would be great business

Saw Artetas comments on Lacazette needing to focus on Arsenal not other clubs following his comments about transfers. All very well and good but how the club reached a point where you are reliant on a guy who is leaving at such a critical point is ridiculous.

So irritating that we are always so badly equipped to deal with the rigours of a season.

We are having to stretch our rebuild across several transfer windows. The fact you can spend 150 million and sign 4 absolutely quality players and still be stretched shows how far we fell.

Looking back at the squad that Wenger left and it is very poor and has had a full turnover since then. Even the squad Emery left has had a virtual full turnover.

In the summer before we bought Leno, Sokratis, Torreira, Guendouzi, Lichsteiner we had 21 first team players in the squad. Come this summer (and including those 5 above) I think only Xhaka and Holding will remain as I expect Lacazette, Elneny, Bellerin, AMN to all leave this summer.

We went through the final 3-4 years of Wenger making a lot of poor buys, we seemed to confound that under Emery (he wanted different players) and only last summer has there seemed like there is a plan in place for a future rebuild.

Rangnick said of his Man U team last night that they are 6 years behind Liverpool, and look at the money they've thrown at that squad.

Manure are woeful and they are team that are very very beatable but we have lost to Soton, Brighton and Palace so I have feeling they are seeing our game as very winnable. Not holding out much hope for tonight.

Liverpool are quite remarkable. Their progression has been so sustained, and their squad building so astute.

City have to be the ones feeling pressure now. I for one will be very pleased if Liverpool do win the league. They are all that is stopping City from dominating the league every year any spanner in City's spokes is to be welcomed (even Chelsea winning the Champions league, bitter though that pill was). The prospect of City with Haaland next season is not a pleasing one.

If we are to lose fourth place, I think it’s down to the January window. Particularly the failure to recruit a new striker. I’ve no problem with letting Aubameyang go, but to not replace him is looking foolish.

TG here posting from 90 minutes into the future in his delorean .

Why has Arteta dropped Martinelli for this game.

He shouldn’t have played Elneny

We’re the biggest spenders,

We’re mentally weak

… and we have no recognised style of play!

BOOM nailed it. See how easy this is.

Strange decisions.