We are on the cusp of a remarkable year. If we spend more than would otherwise seem prudent for someone I won't fault the club.

We have a unique opportunity. Fact is, no one would have dreamt of being top 4 after the first month. Top half seemed to be the more likely goal. Plenty of sides spend big and they flop. They rolled the dice. Pépé isn't worth the 70 mil paid but you win some and lose some.

I assume at the time, Bergkamp was an expensive buy. Sol was an expensive buy. He came on a free but we paid a lot of that back in wages. Ben White and Ramsdale were seen as too expensive but have now proven their worth and may even be considered a bargain after the fact if their form is taken into consideration.

If we squander this golden opportunity for top 4 by not spending when we could, we are not a big club.

If our form keeps up as we hope, whisper it but 3rd place may not seem too far fetched come May and June.

Kane has developed a good range of passing as he’s got older, and as he’s dropped deeper. He was actually top scorer and top assister in the league last year.
I think we dream of a striker who can score, assist and make something out of nothing - Henry! But there aren’t many of those around.
I’m not saying Vlahovic is the answer but I’ll happily have a striker who scores 25 league goals every season without getting a single assist

It's interesting that Vlahovic is being compared to Giroud, because I think a 25-year old Giroud would've been a great signing for this team. His lack of pace was detrimental to him being a lone striker at the time we signed him, but we have a completely different system now - he was an excellent target man with the ability to bring others into play, combine that with 14-15 goals and we would've looked really good.

Always thought Giroud was a little underrated - was skilled with the ball at his feet, a fine finisher and excellent header. Had a good attitude too.

Hope it goes well for Kolasinac - he came on the scene with some impressive power but never really pushed on. In that respect he reminded me of Vermaelen, another who had something special in him that was rarely shown in our shirt.

That is a bit of a shocker. Comoros! That is a bit like England losing to Iceland.

Console yourself with the thought that Partey can slot straight back into the Arsenal midfield.

Or perhaps the Faroe Islands.

Hi Haz,

I agree with that to a large extent. At the moment we are relying on Lacazette's physicality and hold-up play to allow others in the team to flourish. Giroud, with his height, strength and excellent hold-up play would have served this current side very well.

That said, in an ideal world I would like a striker with decent pace to give us options over the top and down the channels.

I am not convinced that the Vlahovic will happen, infact I very much doubt it will.......too much money and seemingly too many people attempting to get their snout in the trough. Plus, if Vlahovic is sensible he will probably wait until the summer when his fee will be lower and his options greater. Whoever doesn't get Haaland will probably see Vlahovic as a very attractive second choice.

When you consider what his transfer fee would have been, I think it’s stretching things massively to describe Sol as an expensive buy.

Anyway, I would say ‘signing’ is a far better word to use than ‘buy’ in his case. He didn’t cost a single penny in transfer fees. So we signed him from his previous employer for zero outlay to Tottenham. The cost was solely in the payments to him (and as with every player his agent). I suggest that makes ‘buy’ the wrong word.

When or if a bank or supermarket appoints a senior executive from another supermarket or bank with no compensation to the former employer, I’ve never heard it called a ‘buy’ whatever the individual’s pay increase allegedly is.

Although no one wants to consider it, point wise, 3rd place is open. City will win it, Liverpool will be runner up but its no where close to a foregone conclusion Chelsea will be 3rd. Likely? Yeah. But they'll have to maintain a pretty good form to be 3rd.

The fight for 4th will probably bring out the best form of those clubs competing for it and if Chelsea falters a little and one of the top four challengers plays better than expected, well...do the math.

Yes, it has a bit of the planets aligning thingy to it but if you look at the games in hand, and the form table, its a fairly open race. Depending on who goes in and out with the challengers can change things as well.

I've long been a fan of Giroud. He was well respected and liked at Chelsea which suggests we made the wrong decision. He has his own song there. He continued to do for them what he did for us. Come off the bench and change games.

Giroud was he we bought after RvP left and he was never, ever going to live up to that. Ever. That was his crime initially. He wasn't RvP.

100%. Always liked Giroud. Best header of the ball up front since Alan Smith IMO.

Morning Az

I haven't seen much of Vlahovic beyond a cursory viewing of one or two of his goal compilations. On the face of it, he has an excellent scoring record but quite a few seemed to be penalties. Some of the defending was pretty ropey as well. Our transfer team have done well recently so I'm inclined to believe they know what they're doing, and if the Kroenkes want to fork out their money, why not?

Martin Ødegaard, Emile Smith Rowe, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Bukayo Saka and Calum Chambers are all expected to be available for Arsenal’s Carabao Cup semi-final second-leg tomorrow night.

Cédric is the only player expected not to be available for Mikel Arteta

Cheers Decaf.
That's definitely a positive re Partey.

Really hoping Leicester and Brentford can both do us a favour tonight against Spurs and Utd.
Would be massive if they can drop points.

Two more opportunities for potential top 4 teams to drop points tonight.
Leicester v Spurs
Brentford v Man U

I hope Brentford can start fast and whip up the feverish atmosphere they did when they played us. I think this slow Man U team is ripe to be picked off by some high tempo cut and thrust football.

I'd happily take a couple of draws now but hope for defeats

Giroud was very underrated in my opinion.
For the 12 to 14 million we bought him for he gave us fantastic service and could never understand why he was given a hard time by some of our fans.
Very good striker albeit lack of pace but excellent technique.
He would be so good for this current team.

Great news

Cant wait to go tomorrow.
It's been a while.
Will really lap it up and hope i'm celebrating on the way home.
Think we can do it.

I think the fact that he got so much stick is simply because Arsenal fans were hoping he'd be our next star striker, and he didn't quite live up to that. We went from Wright to Henry to van Persie, and the hope was obviously that Giroud would be that goalscorer up front, capable of giving us 20+ goals in the league.

He's a bit similiar to Lacazette in that regard - both victims of high expectations they couldn't live up to, both very good but not great players.

You (understandably) missed out Anelka.

South Africa's trajectory in the AFCON is possibly the most ignominious of all.

They won it at the first attempt (1996). were runners up in the next tournament (1998), semi-finalists in 2000, quarterfinalists in 2002, failed to get to knockout stages in 2004, came last in their groups in both 2006 and 2008, and failed to qualify in 2010.

As a former driving instructor you will appreciate such smooth backward maneuvering

However they actually managed to top that in terms of wretchedness in 2012, by failing to qualify after laughably misreading the rules and playing out a draw when they needed to win. An excruciating experience. I stopped watching their televised matches after that. Life is too short.

Wow. I hadn’t realised that it was so abject. I always think that the stadium in Cape Town is such a waste whenever I wander around it

I think you are right. Giroud was never going to be world class but his limitations wouldn't have mattered so much in our current squad, with lots of pace and goals coming from the other forwards.

I am still a bit apprehensive of getting a striker who isn't regarded as particularly fast, however.

From listening to a few in the know journalists it seems Vlahovic is now or never. He'll have many more teams wanting him in January. It seems not many teams are looking to add a top quality striker this winter which means we could steal a march on them for whoever we want.
Come the summer a lot of teams will be after a striker: You could make a case for all the big 6 needing a striker:
City wanted Kane last summer, Man U have two 36 year old strikers, Chelsea are struggling with Lukaku, Liverpool need to get a succession plan for Salah/Mané/Firminho and Spurs might be Kane-less

It is a great pity because there is a lot of talent and money in SA football. But our football administration is a corrupt, bungling mess, unfortunately.

Blimey!

Just googled Comoros.

I'd never heard of the place - unsurprising since you can barely see it on a map of Africa.

I actually thought about him - and Adebayor, who did score 24 goals the season after Henry left - but they only really had one season each when they were at that top level.

The other thing that worries me a bit about Vlahovic is that he's only had one and a half good seasons with Juve. His international goal tally is a bit misleading as most are against mediocre opposition.

I will be delighted but apprehensive if we sign him.

It has a bigger population (800 000 odd) than Iceland (350 000 odd), mind you. Iceland looks big on the map, but glaciers and volcanoes aren't much use on a football field.

Giroud would have have loved to be on the end of the Tierney's crosses as well as others. We finally have players who can consistently get a cross in dangerous places.

...and he was never, ever known for having pace was critiqued for something that was never in his locker. Its like accusing Lacazette for not being Peter Crouch in height.

As it stands it will be a miracle if we get past Liverpool tomorrow night. If we don't I at least want us to make a good account of ourselves. No matter what team we put out, as weak as that team will likely be considering the magnitude of the match, we won't have any sympathy at all from other fans due to the constant criticisms of pundits.

A shame but it is what it is.

That said, I really hope we shut them up with a win.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/footba ... 77527.html

After he impressed against us in the FA Cup we're now being linked to the young RB Spence at Forest on loan from Boro

Considering Rich’s post, before your one, about Ødegaard, Smith Rowe, Tomiyasu, Saka and Chambers all being expected to be available for the game, I don’t think it’ll be a miracle at all for Arsenal to reach the final.

Don’t forget, they won’t have Salah and Mané. I’m not saying we’ll beat them or even that we’re favourites. But I certainly don’t think it’ll take a miracle to knock Liverpool out tomorrow.

Sadly it’s not just your football administration is it?

Interesting and slightly worrying that PEA has been diagnosed with ‘lesions on his heart’. Not sure how serious this might be but you can't see too much of a queue to sign him.

Of course we’d all wish him well but if he can no longer play to his full, presumably it’s an insurance issue.

Vlahovic bid accepted according to several tweets.

No news on whether or not personal terms have been agreed.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/60044439
Jose Mourinho: Is Portuguese manager running out of time at Roma?

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/italian-serie-a/table

Hi Gunny,

It's just clickbait imho, nothing more.

I don't think agreeing a deal with Fiorentina has ever been the real issue, they would willingly sell the player for a huge fee before his contracts begins to run down.

I think the issue is more with Vlahovic and his agents, and the obscene amounts they appear to be demanding. Plus, in the summer he will likely have a bigger choice of options among those not able to sign Haaland.

This is probably our best and only chance of signing him but I just think the cards are not stacked in our favour.