Goals conceded and clean sheets in each teams last 20 games.
Half our our goals conceded over the last 20 came in the opening 3 games of the season.
There has undeniably been an upturn to our defensive solidity, some may say that has come a downturn in creativity, goals and general entertainment.

Man U have 1 clean sheet in their last 20

Wow, this is great to know. Very heart warming

Or was it Arsenal who wanted $2mil from St. Etienne to extend Saliba's loan? Or some insurance requirement in case of injury stuff?

What I heard was technically Saliba’s loan was up in terms of timescale because the season was extended due to covid. A lot of teams extended those loan deals and Arsenal were willing to do the same for Saliba so he could play in the cup final. There was a clause in the loan deal that if Saliba played 25 games (I can’t recall the exact number) and at the time Saliba had played 24. St Etienne wanted Srsenal to extend the loan AND pay the extra fee for the privilege!

Here's a mad, rash, out of the box suggestion. We could...hmmm....er....ah...actually have him play for us? Crazy, I know, just a suggestion.

That clears that

I'm looking forward to the Leicester game. I believe Arteta will begin to set the team up for faster forward play nowadays. He has seen what the team can do.

I’m not denying that’s what happened but it seems an unusual way to conduct loan deals. Most of the loan deals where you hear of payments between the clubs involve a fee being paid by the borrowing club (in this case Saint-Etienne) to the parent club (in this case Arsenal).

In my simplistic terms I’ve seen it as a sort of one year (or however long the loan deal is for) transfer fee, even though the registration of the player’s club won’t permanently change.

I can understand that with youngsters (as Saliba was and still is) the parent club may be eager to see him get minutes on the pitch for the sake of his development as a player. But if he doesn’t, isn’t that one indication of his potential? Also, isn’t it more common for the parent club to have the right to recall the player if he’s not playing much? I don’t know but I thought there was a more known case of this happening.

Was it Nketiah at Leeds? I remember he went there for a year and was recalled by Arsenal (or maybe released by Leeds) after about half a season. I don’t know the reason or how often he was playing for Leeds. But if it wasn’t Nketiah, I’m sure there will be other examples.

As I said earlier, what Rich said may well have been the case with Saliba. I’m just saying it seems a bit odd that if there was no payment either way between Saint-Etienne and Arsenal for Saliba’s first 24 games there, Arsenal suddenly become obliged to pay Saint-Etienne €2.5m (the total I saw reported which equates to around £2.1m at current exchange rates) when he plays his 25th game (or whatever the number of games and payment total were supposed to be).

Leicester will be a proper test of where we are as a team. They are obviously not at City or Liverpools level but on their day can be a match for anyone.

We failed the Brighton test in terms of putting our stamp on the game and were lucky to come away with a point, even though we get brownie points for hanging in there.

Tomorrow we have to go toe-to-toe with them, try to dominate the midfield and create chances whilst being resolute defensively. Not an easy task but its the sort of challenge we have to meet head on if we have aspirations to become a top four side again.

I don’t like us being the early or late Saturday kick off away from home. Maybe it’s my selective memory but we never seem to do well in these sorts of games. The home crowd always seem way more up for it when it’s not your big standard Saturday 3pm game, and that often transmits itself to the intensity of the home team and lack of intensity from us.

The big question mark over us is can we play with the pace, high press and intensity away from home - against anyone. We seem to enjoy doing this with our own fans roaring us on, but I’ve not seen it away from home

The first 5 to 10 minutes will tell us what kind of game we'll see from this squad.

For those who wondered why Ødegaard didn’t play in the last game, apparently he was injured. Arteta said he hopes he’ll be fit enough to play a part today.

That’s curious. At the time he was reported as having a ‘bug’ - similar to Ben White.

Hi chaps

On my last visit to the Emirates I was disappointed to find that The Quality Fish Bar at Finsbury Park is no more. Anyone know what happened to it? Any recommendations for an alternative? (Eat-in, not takeaway and preferably Finsbury Park side of the stadium)

Thanks

Oh joy. Michael Oliver again.

Perhaps it was a bug. Sorry, if you’d asked me why White missed the game too I’d have probably said ‘injured’. No doubt it’s me failing to distinguish between injury and illness.

Maybe I should say ‘out’ in future?

I actually think he’s the Premier League’s best ref.

Strong team. If we put in the same effort from the last two games we have a good chance of getting a win today.

First time I ever heard the name Wrexham was an article I read when I first starte watching British football and they were mentioned as giant killers in the FA cup. We all know who the giant was. Had no idea they were even Welsh.

This is interesting though, I like Ryan Reynolds as an actor. Not sure how he'll be as an owner but wish him an them all the best. Would like to know more than this article is saying about how it all came about.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/ryan-reynolds-goal-wrexham-premier-083711020.html

I think that’s probably our best 11 at the club except Tierney for Tavares.

Some days the Lacazette Aubameyang thing won’t work and you will see idiots on the internet saying “Arteta knows this doesn’t work blah blah blah “ but it seems to have the most balance and combination of threat and stability.

Home to Sunderland in the Carabao

Looking forward to the game. A proper test of our credentials.

I wouldn't say I'm confident but I am optimistic that we can win today.

If we fail to turn up attacking-wise, like against Brighton, then it will be back to the drawing board.

Best draw we could have had.

Agreed.

Yessssss!

Gabriel!

Good start. Indication of a fast game from us.

Gabriel!!!!!!!!

We are getting food at corners.

We’ve scored the most goals from corners in the league. New set piece coach seems to be working!

Very good start from us

I was 100% behind him in the early days of his prominence but I feel he has not been as good as he was then.

Nothing passed him by then but now he does bottle some decisions and is not as firm as he used to be. Riley must have got to him.

Smith-Rowe 2-0!!

Yes!!!!!!! Again.

2 Nil !!



Arteta out !
*Just to beat AG to it

Emile Smith Rowe !!!!!!!!

Completely different team since the disappointing performance against Crystal Palace.

Our football has been superb.

They are *%^@ scared of our strikers and can’t pick up our midfielders. Hope we can keep this up

Radio for me today but happy listening so far!

Yes it closed after 45 years.

https://www.parikiaki.com/2021/03/after ... -it-a-day/



Anyone know of another place nearby ?