Not really looking forward to the game. I would take a draw right now if offered to me. Would be great to beat them for old times sake but unlikely. If anything we'd do well to keep them under 3 goals.

I stated some weeks back if we can beat Tottenham (and Mourinho) I'd be happy for the duration of the season. For the most part I'm not but beating them, especially before Mourinho left the country will be a nice lasting memory.

Speaking of him, he's now firmly in the 2nd tier of football management. Roma is a decent club but oh how far the mighty have fallen. I have no sympathy for him. He's a brat when all is said and done, with moments of humanity once in a while.

If the squad can go 'once more into the breach', and beat Chelsea, I'd 'loov it, just loov it' if we beat them.

Huddersfield Town won three titles under Chapman before Arsenal had a trophy to their name. Then Arsenal poached him and look at what happened to both clubs, particularly Arsenal. I wonder if part of the reason for Chapman joining Arsenal was the money we offered? I’ve little or no doubt there will be countless other examples similar in principle before owners were billionaires. Bolton Wonderers were once a far bigger club than they are now.

Sorry Rich. I know how strongly you feel about the success of City and Chelsea. But if the main reason behind it is Sheikh Mansour and Roman Abramovich spending their money on their clubs while Kroenke chooses to spend his comparable wealth differently (not on Arsenal), I think to borrow that term again, you’re beginning to sound a ‘sore loser’. If not slightly hypocritical?

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... kel-Arteta

Fantastic if this report is true and accurate, especially regards Willian

This says the exact opposite about Leno, as I’m assuming he’s one of those you’d like to see go. I suspect the main thing to remember about transfer gossip is that the huge majority of it is utter trash, made up to sell papers or get internet hits.

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/ ... dium=email

If he does not want to stay, better that he leaves

But the report implies he insists he’s still happy at Arsenal so will want to stay. My strong advice is don’t believe any transfer gossip you see. The huge majority is garbage made up to sell papers or attract internet hits. That’s all it is. No more, no less. The stuff that’s based on anything tangible is few and far between.

Especially around this time of season ticket renewal requests. It's all PR.

Very good point Darren.

The express has now run 3 or 4 Kroenke puff pieces now.

To be honest I wouldn’t really lose much sleep if any of those players mentioned left especially Xhaka however that seems really wishful thinking and I can’t believe that’s true.

When chelsea wallop us later rather than focus on us watch their midfield 3 and how they distribute the ball. The problem story of our season in my opinion (which had many)

I think we need to get Arteta a couple more midfielders then if he has better players in the midfield but still is making over indulgent and pretentious decisions like the ones seen recently then he can get booted around Christmas

The Arsenal app is still showing the Palace game as being this weekend. Pretty poor really.

The Arsenal website has it correctly.

I think we’d be very lucky to find another keeper better than Leno for the money we’re likely to spend on a replacement.

The 3 GK I've seen mentioned (other than Ryan) are:
Szczesny - all seems to be based on Juve going for Donnarumma on a free transfer, and he'll always be linked back to us by the press
Onana - Ajax GK currently serving but appealing a doping ban. If his appeal succeds he's rumoured to be available for £7m
Raya - Brentford GK we were linked with heavily last year, counts as a home grown player and there were rumours of him staying 1 more year with Brentford to try to get them promoted and then being allowed to leave

At the moment we have 3 non home grown GK - which makes absolutely no sense for squad building. You need at least 1 possibly 2 of the 3 to be home grown considering the lack of action they would generally see. If we're out of europe next season the 3rd choice GK should probably be our best home grown youth prospect, so send Runnarsson on loan somewhere.

Think your probably right on that and it’s also worth remembering that would mean we would likely need to sign 2 new goalkeepers this summer as a back up if Matt Ryan doesn’t come. These things don’t sound easy. Make or break summer for Edu

If Leno does go it will make the irritating moaning about him go away. Arsenal fans seem to have long forgotten the endless blunders from Čech, alumnia and ospina

Pretty uninspiring options you have to say.

Also if Lacazette goes he might be hard to replace. Quality strikers come at a premium

Ryan Bertrand is leaving Southampton on a free transfer this summer. He's inevitably linked to us as a back up left back, probably because he's cheap and home grown.

For me I'd rather we went and got a young home-grown left back to play back up to Tierney rather than going down the road of high wages, high signing on fee and risk signing a player who is only going to get worse - and these guys usually want 3 year deals. Id rather go for a young championship left back who we have scouted and rate - or go for Tyrick Mitchell from Palace if you want a home grown left back on a free transfer.

For the money we'll have to spend you're going to be taking a risk with any transfer. Seemingly available strikers
Edouard from Celtic £20m
Dembele from Lyon £25m
maybe Daka from Salzburg for £20m
All of these have scored lots of goals for smaller teams but then so did Haaland before he signed for Dortmund. It all comes down to good scouting and good coaching

So, how much is available to spend? I have next to no idea of our finances and transfer budget. Will we have to sell to buy? Kroenke is hurting financially. A lot of money was poured into the stadium and the team and the pandemic has cut the expected revenues. The league itself took out a huge loan to tide themselves over and it will have to be repaid. Kroenke is responsible for his share.

Not to mention his other professional franchises in the NBA, NHL, MLS. They are all similarly affected by covid19.

Also, California, especially LA is losing population fast. California for the first time ever lost a congressional seat in Congress (based on population) and is expected to lose more. The local economy is uncompromising and my guess having been a former resident is it will get worse. I don't think the Rams will be a successful financially as the league and Kroenke hope they will. But that's my guess on what I know about the city and how things are.

There will be a crash at some point (long overdue economically) and LA will be hit harder than most when it does. London and other places will as well but this is about Kroenke specifically. It won't be good for us and we may even see money siphoned off.

All that said, it could....fingers crossed, could prompt him to sell. That would also assume that a willing buyer can be found who has the resources AND will be positive for the club and not just replacing one onerous owner for another. Financial ruin is probably the only realistic way we will be rid of Kroenke. His ruin, not ours...for the pedants.

Watching a series on Netflix with Martin Freeman playing a badass cop. It's tough to see that in him. He's pulling it off somewhat. As an aside, Brits generally do very good American accents. Middle American accents, what we mean by that here is, an accent that has no specific region like New York, the deep south, Boston, etc. It's what they used to look for in TV news. The Iowan accent is supposed to be the ideal American accent. Non descript, clear.

Americans on the other hand are generally terrible at it. I have jokingly done British accents that fool Americans and some non Brits but of course not Brits. One side story, at the pub in LA, a Chelsea fan and I went to Starbucks after a match to discuss the game. A couple American girls heard him order and of course loved the accent. He said 'Me and me mate here are having a cuppa...care to join?" They sat down and I smirked at him and did my faux British accent (London) accent, he laughed but kept up the ruse. They bought it. I'm no anglophile, truth is when I do the accent around other Americans its mocking you guys as you do about us. My accent range is east London, west London, Liverpool, Irish, the poorest Geordie, a poor Glaswegian accent. I also do regional American accents. I've always been a decent mimic growing up. I have great Vito Corleone, Darth Vader and a few other voices that I immodestly say are pretty darn good.

For Leno it's either way obviously which way he goes.
May have something to do with the GK coach Inaki Cana. Reports suggest Leno's form has dipped and he's made a few errors in games lately, of course. Cana is a concern among a few players apparently. Arteta brought Cana to Arsenal in 2019.

You're wrong about the app LTG. I recently updated mine as it was still showing the games on Saturday. It has been updated on the website and you need to redownload it to your calender.

Just checked the app to make sure and it is also correct. It's the calender link that isn't.

Those long winter nights must fly by round your gaff, AG.

And it was on Cana’s recommendation that we bought runnarsson to the club, despite all his latest stats showing he was not the required standard

https://twitter.com/arsenalacademy/stat ... 86473?s=21

Azeez with a nice goal for the U18’s. He’s a long way above this level having played for U23 and call ups to first team squads this season

They’ve just changed it - in the past couple of hours.

Must have read my post.

Not sure I ever saw endless blunders from Čech or Ospina, and although Almunia proved fallible in some big games, I thought he exceeded expectations we might have had of a Divison Two keeper. I do agree with you that criticism of Leno does go overboard - he has made many important saves. If he does go then a club somewhere will have a good acquisition.

Especially when he does a post-match dressing room scene involving Geordie Armstrong, Georgeous George, Pat Rice and the Immortal Frank.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57086460
This is not happening at Tottenham anytime soon...

Team looks like a back 3, Tierney and Saka as wing backs (Saka right wing back) 2 centre mids, 2 No.10’s and Aubameyang up top

Bellerin, Cédric and Chambers on the bench and no natural right back in the team. To be fair I think Saka will be a better right wing back than all of them. Arteta clearly doesn’t rate any of his right backs.
Such unbalance in the squad still

I'll watch it because its Chelsea but if or when we raise the white flag, I'll go back to my Netflix series. It's getting decent 3rd episode in.

Another experimental team. Defence looks very strong but attacl looks hotch potch

1Leno
16Holding
6Gabriel
22Marí
3Tierney
18Partey
25Elneny
7Saka
11Ødegaard
32Smith Rowe
14Aubameyang

Substitutes
2Bellerín
8Ceballos
9Lacazette
12Willian
17Cédric Soares
19Pépé
21Chambers
33Ryan
35Martinelli
Referee:
Andre Marriner

Thats the formation we should have played away at Villareal. Obviously with Saka left, Bellerin right and Nketiah instead.

Still can’t get over that

Its a strange one. Bellerin has had a disappointing season, but what have Chambers and especially Cédric done to prompt this weird shape shifting?

Don't Chelsea play with a back 3? Tactical man for man?

Is it first time Gabriel and Mari have played together. With Holding on the right it looks pretty strong to me.

I don't like this chopping and changing of formations. Chelsea will be much better drilled with the 3 at the back. Is Arteta trying to be too clever yet again?

Horrible. Got away with that.

I still can't believe he doesn't know his best eleven?

Well we got away with that one.