Hi Bernard. I was a bit shocked to see you reply to my post beyond the prescribed sell by date. I expect you’ll be receiving an official warning from the mods.
Nevertheless, as I understand it Stokes isn’t really a football fan at all, but Tottenham sent him a shirt for some reason, and a tabloid newspaper used it as an excuse to fill a bit of space.

Morning socrates. If Lokongo was £17m rather than the £10m I said, that makes the expenditure so far around £75m. I think you’re right that incomings will be more likely with some outgoings. Who will they be?

It certainly looks like Xhaka won’t be one of them. Indeed, I think it’s more likely he’ll get a contract extension. My impression has always been that Arteta rates him very highly as a player, and it wouldn’t shock me if his prospective move to Roma had more to do with Xhaka favouring it instead of Arteta. That it didn’t come off may even have led to Arteta chatting with him, saying why not hang around with a pay rise in a new contract?

So who else might be on their bike? I don’t think Willian will move, even if he and Arsenal would probably welcome it. The sticking point being his salary, which he won’t get anywhere else. He’s also guaranteed it for another two years staying with us. My guess is Leno will stay, as if we really pay what Sheffield United want for Ramsdale, Stan must be financially doping us.

I can see Lacazette being offloaded to Atletico Madrid, but I reckon it’ll have to be for peanuts for it to happen. If Elneny goes, I think that will also be for peanuts. Bellerin might fetch an okay fee, but if he leaves we’ll presumably have to buy a new right back. Any or all of Willock, AMN, Nelson and Nketiah might go for semi-decent sums, even though not as much as it would have been in a non-depressed transfer market.

Their departures will hopefully fund the purchase of another central midfielder because even if Xhaka stays, we still look light there.

Thanks bromley. That would explain why Stokes supports Tottenham, even if he’s not a serious football fan. Wonder why Tottenham sent him a shirt though?

Just the smugness of the statement. These clubs *%^@** up because they are unable to do basic maths and hold any accountability over themselves. That’s the truth.

Btw despite you being a dribbling gurning *%^@ I agree with the last part. Those clubs are bad for football however next time those clubs try again the English clubs will be involved again despite everything I bet you.

Modern day journalism isn't worth the paper or site its written on. I keep seeing Daniel Ek buying Arsenal articles and these journalists know he doesn't have the money. If he had well heeled partners, okay a possibility but Kroenke isn't going to sell. Anyway, there is next to no chance of that happening. Almost as much chance as my exchanging holiday gifts with....

The 4th estate has been dead for a while.

I probably didn’t explain myself very well. What I meant was that when we try to sell then clubs ‘haven’t got enough money’ and the market is depressed but when we try to buy then the price goes up with little sign of a depressed market.

I've long heard many of the African players had fake birth certs. Not trying to stereotype, just what I've heard even from fans of their own players.

The actual truth is that covid May have affected things but the impact at the top of the market isn’t as bad and the reason we have issues are the players we are trying to sell have flattered to deceive a bit whilst on big money and the buyers know that and aren’t prepared to take the risk.

If you look Roma have signed 3 players now including the wolves keeper and are being linked with Telles the United defender. They obviously have money but aren’t prepared to spend much on Xhaka ? Why ? because if the fee is 20m plus a 3 year contract the total cost is a 40 million pound commitment for 3 years of Granit *%^@*** Xhaka. I can understand why we wouldn’t get a bite.

Obviously the market is depressed a bit but it can’t be the reason we are struggling to sell these players at all. Decent transfer fee + huge wages for a player who could be hit and miss ?

Kieran Trippier is on 80 grand a week apparently and Bellerin take a guess ? It’s 120k. I know who I’d rather have in our team and that highlights our problems

From the reports I’ve seen, the three players Roma have bought are Rui Patricio, the Wolves keeper you mention, for £10.35m; Roger Ibanez from Atalanta for £8.10m; and Bryan Reynolds from Dallas for £6.08m. Together their transfer fees add up to £24.53m. In total just £4.53m more than what Arsenal wanted for Granit Xhaka.

You say Roma obviously have money, but how much money? The three players they’ve signed together cost less than half of what Arsenal have reportedly risked on Ben White, a central defender who arguably still has a lot to prove (or maybe unarguably).

Fair enough but they are also supposed to be signing Telles who will cost another 18- 20 and are linked to Belotti! We only want 20, must be reason they aren’t biting.

Wouldn’t argue with any of that.

Is the game today on tv anywhere?

I understand Arsenal TV is covering it but I am unclear if you have to pay.

Will be interesting to see what system we play and who Arteta has in mind for his squad.

This report suggests Viera at Palace is seeking a loan of Reiss Nelson. If the financial penalties weren't too severe for us I think it would be a good deal.
https://www.teamtalk.com/news/patrick-v ... elson-loan

There were rumours Vieira had wanted Nketiah as well. I’d be happy to see them both (Nketiah and Nelson) go to Palace, although preferably via sales rather than loans.

That’s not me writing both off as useless. I just can’t see either getting much game time this season. So I think moves would be beneficial to them as well as Arsenal.

Some poor challenges from Chelsea in the first half. Partey has gone off injured and now Tierney in some discomfort after a bad challenge from Zouma. Can someone tell Chelsea it's a friendly?

Can someone tell Arsenal that it’s a friendly. They want to charge £7.99 to watch it.

There are a couple of links here:

https://reddt1.soccerstreams.net/event/ ... eam/667386

I'm watching the one called cappuccino, works fine.

There's a big gaping hole in central defense since Mustafi left but Ben will at least try to fill it in part if he can't whole.

Thanks. Tried that. Just keeps opening loads of windows with adverts.

Ha. Gotta laugh. Can only keep track via text updates. Our ‘just like a new signing’ has equalised.



Edit: Well that lead didn’t last long.

Plumbing new levels of awfulness. Just seen the Bellerin ‘backpass’ which put us 1-2. Truly horrible.

Leno has made two of those as well, nearly leading to goals.

On the bright side Willock equalized from a shot that hit the crossbar and went in. Sadly the linesman missed it and there's no VAR.

Hopefully it will all be better when we play them for real.

Aubameyang still sounds to be in the same vein of form as last season.

Individual mistakes will continue to happen by individuals who are not good enough. Individual mistakes were our absolute nemesis last season, gifting goals to teams who don’t have to work for them.

Oh and awful refs even in pre season!

Yeah, our high defensive line caused us some trouble in the first half, but that's something we can work on as a team. But in the second half, almost all of Chelsea's chances were the result of individual mistakes, which is something we just need to cut out of our game. Better concentration and decision making needed there.

Some positives too, thought we looked bright going forward at times. Smith-Rowe and Pépé look really lively, Partey bossed the midfield before going off. Tavares and Lokonga looked good after coming on. Should've scored a few more, the chances were there.

Overall some of the flaws from last season were still there, but some encouraging signs with our attacking play. Still just pre-season of course.

Good game for the neutral but boy our defending is hopeless. Chelsea must have been through on goal 6 or 7 times, mainly due to our poor positional play or individual errors.

Bright spots were Nketiah and Willock when they came on. Tavares and Lokonga looked decent.

Leno is a great shotstopper and brilliant 1v1 but his decisionmaking with the ball at his feet is terrible.

Afternoon Soc,

Really nice seeing seeing Lokonga get on the ball in midfield. Little glimpse of what he could become, he often managed to find the forward pass when it looked like it had been cut off. He carried the ball forward to break the lines when it was and appeared a few times to intercept the ball in front of our defence.

I didn’t see Partey get injured, did it look bad??

Yes, Nketiah and Willock looked bright. Willock is probably our sellable player with the highest value, but if we're not going to bring in another central midfielder I would prefer him to stay and play ahead of Elneny. As criticised as Xhaka has been, a much bigger problem with our midfield last season was Elneny starting 17 league games. He's just a complete non-factor out there, spends all game chasing shadows basically.

Hard to say, he tried playing for a few minutes after the knock but was eventually taken off. Could've just been a precaution, but there were a number of unnecessarily bad challenges from Chelsea.

Not given as a goal

There was a physio Twitter handle that said what it looked like and reckoned 4-6 weeks.

Hi Ash,

Yes, Lokonga's got that nice way of moving with the ball through the midfield and spraying passes. Early days but the signs are promising.

Hard to tell with the Partey injury, he played on for a while but then had to be subsituted. A shame because he was excellent in possession.

I thought we saw both sides of Xhaka, a couple of wonderful passes but caught in possession a couple of times too. He is much better suited to Spain or Italy.

Totally agree on Elneny needing to be as far away from the team as possible now. Lokonga must be ahead of him and I think Azeez should be as well.

Holding struggles with a high line and i don’t think he’s good enough to start for a team with top 4 ambitions

Also we’ve still got an absolutely massive squad that still needs quality additions and lots of players to leave. Currently I think we’re battling spurs for 6th

Oh bloody ‘ell. *%^@*** Chelsea. Tuchel jumped up with about 10 to go to do some pointing, then gave Danny Drinkwater some abuse for losing the ball then went and sat down again. seems suuuper intense.

If that's true central midfield becomes an even bigger priority. Think Lokonga needs to be eased in a bit, and we just can't go into the season with Elneny starting.

Hi Rich,

I think getting rid of surplus players is the big issue. They are frankly earning more money than they are worth and teams don't want to have to pay a fee and take on board their large salaries. The trouble is we can't just give them away any more than we can magic up interest in them at the fees we are asking.

Problem is that except for Xhaka these players are doing zero to persuade any other club to buy them.