There’s a growing number of these sorts of pundits now. Pretty much anyone on talksport takes this position.

You are both right, but context is everything. When Highbury was built its design was completely on another level to any existing football stadium. The facade and marble reception hall was very grand for the times. The two main stands were intended to evoke a comfortable theatre visit for seated spectators, and the quality of the dressing rooms would have been astonishing to players. If it all seemed a little less grand in later years, and the marble halls cliche was tired, there is no doubt that at its peak Highbury was a wonder.

Yes, a wonderful achievement. For me a lovely aside to her run to the final was seeing the women who were former British tennis champs come out in her support. To see Christine Janes (nee Truman) on the telly saying such nice things about the young girl was especially touching. And even better, her win has knocked the Ronaldo love-in off the top sporting news!

Hi OMOH,

Fantastic performance from both players.

I am not really a fan of women's tennis (not since Kournikova retired obviously ) but that match was an incredibly high level, high entensity encounter. Very impressed with the technical, tactical and athletic prowess of both players.

It will be interesting to see if both players go on to develop a fierce rivalry over the next decade or so.

I thought Pépé was a mixed bag, some brilliant things but also some really poor things. A few times the ball was knocked into him and his control let him down and the ball just bounced away from him was was hugely frustrating.

He was great for half an hour but then drifted out of the game and was really on the periphery of things for much of the remainder of the match. He needs to find a way to impose himself on the game for longer periods, he has the talent to do it but does he have the mental capacity to dictate things?

What an achievement. I'm not really a tennis fan but I ended up watching the whole match and by the end I was feeling surprisingly emotionaly invested. To think that 3 months ago she was doing her A levels!

Yesterday was my first Arsenal match of the season. The crowd management outside the stadium was a little lacking.
There was a checkpoint to get onto the concourse and after 10 mins of painfully slow and exasperated shuffling forward, many started walking around the 'security' when they realised it was a few hired security bods who were in on position to stop people. Then at my gate to get in the ground, rather than use all 10 turnstiles, they shut them all except for two next to each other, creating a massive throng of people all squeezing and jostling into the only 2 available. At least the hand sanitisers positioned beside the queues with the message "stay socially distanced" got a little laugh.
From my seat high up in the corner of the North Bank I found it quite tricky to confidently identify who was playing. This wasnt helped by being seated under one screen and the dip of the roof blocking the other screen. I thought the mood of the crowd was noticibly positive considering the teams disastorous start to the season, and we started the game well. However, as the game wore on I couldnt shake the feeling that Arteta's Arsenal are generall slow and lacklustre going forward. It was only when Partey and Smith Rowe came on did I feel like our play sped up and got a bit more direct. I thought the new signings all played quite well, but overall we seem like a team less than the sum of its expensively assembled parts, and I cant help think this is squarely on Arteta. Hopefully this will improve as the new players settle in and injured ones return but time is running out if we dont want to lose points early on. Of the new signings I thought the new right back had very a solid debut, Ramsdale has a bit of personality which the crowd responded to, Ben White is so confortable on the ball and Lakonga was much better than I imagined he would be. All in all, it was nice to be backand I can see the promise of the new signings, but it was a little dispiriting to see how far we have fallen as team right now.

I think some of the folks lambasting the club for over paying for Ben White and Ramsdale are going to end up with serious egg on their faces.

That's the way my missus describes our sex life.

A few things on this, for the chelsea game we arrived very close to Kick off and the ramp by block 126 felt very packed and compressed with people. I’m not a fan of being packed in spaces and if you have kids with you it’s not preferable so I’d advise taking the clubs advice and get to the ground early if possible.

On your comments about the team falling I’m sorry I don’t agree whilst understanding the feeling. I think it’s a solid looking side and we just need some of the new players to gel a bit, we looked good yesterday but very raw and we need time for some relationships to form. I was hugely impressed by white, Ramsdale and Tommy.


Wengers final team selection was Ospina, Bellerin, Mustafi, Holding, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Ramsey, Iwobi, Mkhitaryan, Aubameyang, Lacazette.

I think we are in a far better place now and the only thing really missing is a star player a Bergkamp, Henry Sanchez type that galvanises the team and an experienced midfield option. Hopefully this can come in future

In some ways it was a typical Pépé performance. Some brilliant bits, some incredibly frustrating bits. At one moment he is bringing down a 50 yard spinning ball on the tip of his toe, then he miscontrols a straight foward pass which would have put him clean through on goal.

Ah yes, but don’t forget you would have first seen Highbury when it opened in 1913. Remember, coming from your neck of the woods your first game would have been Dial Square’s first match in 1886. Compared to Plumstead Common it probably did look good.

I agree Ødegaard started very well but faded in the second half. At half time I felt a sensible argument could have been made about him being our man of the match, or man of 45 minutes. I noticed the same as Rich. Arteta spoke to him at some length following the goal. Don’t know what about, but he did.

Soc's post said half an hour, not half a minute. Easy to miss!

Fair enough. I'm not saying we dont have decent players with tons of potential. But with 2 eighth place league finishes, all overseen by a rookie manager with a style of play which I personally find a bit rigid and laboured, its hard for me to be excited by this team, especially in the short term. I think we will improve as the season goes on, but I worry that its going to be another underwhelming league season.

Splendid, and as you say, I hardly noticed that Ronaldo scored two goals! I did manage to notice Spurs' misfortunes, however.

Worth mentioning that despite the teams horrible start to the season, there is no doubt that everyone was behind the team yesterday in the stadium.

I think it just needs one or two of our players (someone like Pépé perhaps?) to have a standout season, and for the squad to have decent luck with injuries, and we may well surprise. Aubameyang is looking sharp and hungry too, which is a good omen.

Top 4 looks a stretch, but when you have a squad full of talented young players, you are giving yourself a chance.

Wouldn’t really disagree with the sentiment or concerns

I think we are in for a mixed bag of a season. I can see us doing well at home but the team looks a little lightweight and may struggle away from the emirates. A lot will be learned from the trip to turf moor.

I think Thomas Partey is our best player and we looked transformed as soon as he came on. A lot rests on our ability to keep him on the pitch.

I’ve seen a few outlets describe our goal as lucky or fortunate. I find that strange because of the defender had just hooked it away before Aubameyang tapped in surely most people would have said we were incredibly unlucky not to score having hit both posts and had a certain goal cleared off the line

Quick word on the gooner fanzine. I’ve always enjoyed occasionally getting and reading it for the laughs down the years. Kevin Whitchers talking reds column often summarised my general thoughts about my beloved arsenal well down the years and the Highbury spy often had me cracking up.

The latest copy is .... well totally shite, it seems to have been changed to a magazine that promotes and showcases the individual contributors social media presence so you now have bloggers like le grove and internet correspondents like Charlie Watts writing for it. It seems to totally miss the point of a fanzine in the first place which is primarily supposed to be 80% laughs and taking the piss 10% natter and 10% history and reporting. Not to mention the price is now 5 *%^@*** quid. Can’t see myself buying it anymore which is a shame and can’t see it being around for much longer if it retains its form.

Does anyone know why the main entrance to the north bridge (to get from Drayton Park to the ground) has been closed when going to the game? It’s open when exiting the stadium after the match so it can’t be a structural problem. It’s been the case for both home games this season.

They are asking people going from the Drayton Park side of the ground to cross using the south bridge. This presumably means the very large majority of those using Arsenal tube station and Finsbury Park tube and overground stations. The first thing you see after crossing the south bridge is the entrance to the away fans section, where you will inevitably get more away supporters congregating outside the ground. I’m not saying that makes it unsafe. But it has to mean the away supporters before going in being nearer to a bigger number of Arsenal fans going to the ground.

I still call them the north and south bridges. The north bridge is formally called the Ken Friar bridge now and the south one the Danny Fiszman bridge. Changes in names I never liked. Hence my refusal to call them the Friar and Fiszman bridges.

I thought yesterday was very satisfactory.
Five of our new signings started. None failed. All showed why they had been signed. That's good. Arteta started them, which is good too. I wanted to see Ramsdale but hadn't expected to.
Many players were coming back from illness, injury or the international break, so unlikely to be at their physical peak.
Aubameyang scored.
AMN was given his chance.

I hadn't expected coherence, given so many recently signed (Tomiyasu only just getting his work permit), only just coming back from being unavailable, and limited time for Arteta to work with them as a group. Could easily have been worse since they were coming into a dysfunctional structure.

I was impressed by Lokonga and Tomiyasu who were both better than I had anticipated. White and Ramsdale seemed to tick the required boxes, but expectations were higher because of their prices. And it was Norwich at home.

The forward unit doesn't work as an effective unit. That's been the case for a long time - we have been very dependent on peak Aubameyang. Maybe the new midfield will enable it. Maybe Ødegaard or Emile Smith Rowe will start pulling it together. If we're lucky Arteta will find the key to Ødegaard; everyone sees his quality, but no-one found it at RM. More likely it will take Aubameyang/Lacazette replacements to provide the key.

For the first time, I think we're seeing the bones of an Arteta team.

Seen it being suggested this morning that the formation we finished the game in with Partey as a defensive midfielder and Emile Smith Rowe and Ødegaard as a midfield 2 in front of him is how Arteta hopes to set us up for most matches once people are fit. This would explain the weird system he played when he was appearing to use Xhaka as the sole midfielder and the lengthy conversation with Ødegaard mid game.

It would, but I'm not sure whether it's just an attempt to impose an idea on what we've seen. Makes sense to me though.

I do believe that he'll be looking for flexible movement from Emile Smith Rowe and Ødegaard. Maybe Saka too in the end. I suspect he'd like a striker that will fit into that type of system too. He maybe tried it with Eddie without it ever quite working. But there wasn't the right type of midfield then, and he couldn't avoid the fact that Aubameyang is our superstar striker, with Lacazette not so very far behind (even if he has never quite fitted in for us).

Very happy to see AMN start yesterday, and he did okay too. Hope to see him get more game time and eventually gain more confidence to be a marauding midfielder.

Kudos to Arteta for the starting line-up. He was brave enough to allow Ramsdale, White, Tomiyasu, Lokonga & AMN to start, and play as a unit for the first time. Relieved and glad it came out okay. Over time we should get more goals as the players get to know each other better on the field.

Brilliant

I was encouraged by yesterday's performance.

We were wasteful but at least we were creating chances to miss which is more than we had been doing for a while.

I liked Ramsdale's composure with the ball at his feet and his presence but clearly we have to see much more of him when under real pressure before drawing any conclusions.

White is very, very good on the ball and will undoubtedly create lots of openings for us with his impressive range of passing. I like the fact that he and Gabriel both have pace and can cover for each other.

Tomiyasu was promising and certainly didnt shirk the physical side of the game but again its too early to draw any meaningful conclusions.

Lokongu continues to impress.

Ødegaard shows glimpses of brilliance but needs to impose himself on games and start creating more chances and adding some goals to his game.

Emile Smith Rowe adds a directness which we lack at times.

Makes a lot of sense.

So happy for Vieira first and foremost, secondarily very happy for Palace. My 'soft spot' club. Vieira has certainly endeared himself to the fans with this win. I just hope it continues. I really wish him the best. Love the guy.

I read Ben White created 3 chances yesterday. The highest total of chances created for the entire season last year was 4. Clear to see where he improves us

Tomiyasu won 7 of 8 duels contested yesterday. It’s a big area we need to improve.
His signing seems sensible in that he brings balance to the side, he fills in for the weaknesses of others.

It’s strange when I look at the core 14 or so of the squad there is a lot to like. Individually these players have a good skill set. Now the hard part is gelling them together seamlessly so they become more than the sum of their parts.

Feels like such a long time since we said “the Arsenal right back had a very good game”

Such a massive plus if he keeps up that level of performance

Thinking about it, for this to work it also needed someone with White's range of passing at CB.

It would have biased him to be positive about Arsenal. It's nearly 90 years since Chapman died and we still talk about him. And we (many/most of us anyway) know about the Huddersfield link.
He's the great legend for Huddersfield, maybe even more than for us. He won their first FA Cup and first two First Division Championships. Their other was won by his team, the year he left to join us.

Let’s be realistic. Chapman’s time at Huddersfield 35 years before Law left them still wouldn’t be enough to make him see Arsenal like the English Real Madrid. It’s more likely that Arsenal’s mediocrity as a team at the time didn’t turn them into a middling club.

We have to be honest. No-one has ever truly believed we were the English Real Madrid (won their 5th European Cup in a row in 1960).
Maybe it was irony at the idea of someone thinking he'd be impressed by a marble hall.
In reality, of course, he went to Manchester City, then Torino, then Manchester United, then back to Manchester City. The first three at world record fees iirc.