Henry's American goals

Maybe he only wants Arsenal? That seems to be the story going around. I know no more than you on this so it's purely assumptive, but I think there will be more signings towards the end of the window.

You may be interested to know that in the preceding season to last when you say Aubameyang was in abysmal form he scored more Premier League goals than Jesus with 10 goals in 29 games. Jesus scored 9 goals in 29 games that same season (2020/21).

Indeed, even last season (2021/22) Aubameyang had the same goal per game ratio (4 goals in 14 games) as Jesus (8 goals in 28 games).

Antonio Conte: “Spence is an investment of the club. The club wanted to do it. I said okay, this player is young but he showed he can become a good, important player for us. The club decided to buy him.”

Sounds like Conte doesn't fancy and didn't want Spence!

Jesus is not a prolific scorer, and though I think his scoring rate will improve if he's played consistently as a number 9 I'm not expecting him to score 25 goals for us. However, a big difference between him and Aubameyang is that an Aubameyang who doesn't score basically doesn't contribute at all. With Jesus, apart from the goals, you still get the work rate, the pressing and the link-up play. A lot of the things that Lacazette gave us, but at a higher level and with a lot more speed.

I agree, teams that win the biggest trophies are front foot high possession based teams who tend to take the game to the opposition no matter who it is. There are very few examples I can think of that don't fit that rule. Leicester when they won the title. Mourinho's Inter when they won the CL - but counter attack can win cup comps.

I think Conte is going for a 'win now' method, experienced players coming in. To be fair it makes sense for him because why waste the talent of 29/20 year old Son/Kane by trying a 5 year re-build with young players. It does mean Spurs may have a problem in 5 years time.....

Lots of reports keep saying Arsenal are fully on board for Tielemans, it is unanimous among edu, arteta etc. The concern for me, is that if he is our first choice and we're waiting to drive the price down we may get a few more clubs showing interest. Man U are rumoured to like him but want De Jong as a priority. Wait too long and De jong collapses and then we have competition

Arsenal Mexican talent Marcelo Flores will join Real Oviedo on loan deal valid until June 2023.

Arm twisting from Levy so to speak.

Arsenal Mexican talent eh?

Brings to mind Carlos Vela.

Brighton are trying to get Tavares on loan. Sounds like the perfect loan move to me

Well done! England women Euros 2022 through to the semis. Will play Sweden or Belgium.

3 - 1 for us against Orlando.

Martinelli, Nketia and Nelson scored.

Wooo!!
3-1 to the Arsenal.
Goals scored by players as Warrior posted. Nice to view on a free stream.

First half team paled in comparison to second half. We do need reinforcements to stay competitive.

Does feel a shame that we ‘have’ to play so many players with no future at the club, feels like 3-4 more younger players could have been on this tour instead.

The other worry is the fitness of some players, they may be fit for the start of the season but they won’t be ready. Tomiyasu is the biggest worry of that lot who have niggles. Our right side when Tomiyasu and Saka are unavailable is quite poor

From the highlights I saw it looks like Lokonga is more comfortable in that advanced midfield position rather than the Partey position. If we’re not buying a player to play in deep midfield it looks like we’ll have to gamble on Partey’s fitness with Elneny as a back up.

If we sign Tielemans he will be much needed but I still think that if Partey is out then we may need to move to a double pivot and traditional 10 rather than the lone pivot and 2 No.8’s that only really works with Partey in the team

Artetas comments after the game definitely lend gravitas to the suggestion we have to sell before we buy again.

Who is now a teammate of our (as in Wales') greatest ever footballer at Los Angeles FC.

Tierney and Tomiyasu both missing again. The number of comments on the internet about our first half defence was noticeable. Instead of criticising Nuno (who played over 80mins) they should be asking where is Tierney, who has failed to get himself fit since 31 March. Is Tomiyasu even a viable starter for early in the season? Zinco can't get to the club soon enough but then he will need to bed in. I see Zinco as our early season LB - lets hope he is good enough. It is hard to bed in Saliba if a number of the players who potentially could be first choice are absent, and he has no idea how they play.

Until November there are a lot of games and our squad isn't looking that strong. The LB, RB, & Partey's position are all essential and all where we are most vulnerable.

I read it like that as well. Which is a shame because we could struggle to get the money in for all our cast offs combined to get another serious player.

Hopefully it is something like £25m Tielemans. We should be able to scrape that together. We should be getting at least £10m for Leno, Torreira must find a home for £8-10m, Mari is probably a free, Bellerin might struggle to get £5m, If Nelsen is under £3m or so then you might as well keep him with us for Europa group stages at least. Pépé, feels like that will need to be a loan.

What did he say then? If you’re right (and I’ve not heard or read his comments), it surely supports the conclusion that he gave a much bigger priority to signing players in various other positions than deep midfield.

For example, firstly a new striker (completely understandable with Jesus). Secondly a creative midfielder Vieira who for all we know might end up as being a backup to presumably the next club captain Ødegaard. Thirdly, Zinchenko who may well be used mainly as cover for Tierney (assuming we do get him and our interest in Martinez was genuine). Fourthly a wider or more mobile attacking player if our interest in Raphina was genuine.

Have I forgotten anyone? Turner, who at most will be the new cup keeper and cover for Ramsdale, and if Leno’s move to Fulham doesn’t transpire then probably not even that.

With us not even competing with Tottenham for Bissouma and Tielemans allegedly being available for as little as £25m to £30m and apparently nothing having been done in getting the latter on board with the season a fortnight from starting (fifteen days to be pedantic), it does make me wonder if Arteta is happy with Partey and Xhaka as the deeper midfielders covered by Lokonga and possibly Maitland-Niles.

It’ll be fascinating to see whether we recruit Tielemans, if he’s seen as the deeper midfielder. Is it possible Arteta simply doesn’t fancy him and will make do with Partey, Xhaka, Lokonga and possibly Maitland-Niles? I would be very surprised if we change our playing style and Vieira is a regular starter with Ødegaard and one of Partey or Xhaka. Apart from against the weakest opposition or if we desperately need a substitute to create a late goal.

EDIT: I forgot Marquinhos. That presumably pushes Tielemans ever further down Arteta’s list of priorities.

Zinchenko was at the game sat next to Edu, he's already training with the squad. Expect Arsenal to officially announce it in about 3 weeks!

Right Back is important because Tomiyasu is not consistently fit
Right Wing is important to give Saka a break, Saka is very robust but that may be down to a fair bit of luck because he comes in for some rough treatment - its only a matter of time.
Def Mid is important because Partey is the most important cog in our entire system

I don’t know if you read my last post above, but is it possible Arteta might be bending the truth? Perhaps Arteta simply doesn’t fancy Tielemans?

As you imply Rich, if Tielemans is around the £25m mark, in Premier League standards that’s pretty close to being peanuts. Indeed, a small bag of peanuts. So much so that if Edu contacted Josh to say Arteta is desperate to sign him so can you ask your dad if he’ll meet the cost, I honestly believe considering our expenditure so far this summer and last summer, that if Josh did that Stan would now say go ahead.

That wouldn’t have always been the case. But now I reckon it probably is.

I think Arteta currently sees Elneny as the Partey back up in the system we play with a single defensive mid. I think if Xhaka or Lokonga play deeper they play as part of a pair - or at least I think they need to!

Tielemans can and has played deeper but again I see him as part of a deeper two, or a 'double pivot' as football hipsters call it.

I think Arteta has been clear his preference is for a 4-3-3 and the 3 in midfield being a lone deep player and 2 No.8's, much like City have played for a number of years. Last year Xhaka played that advanced left sided 8, his position was much higher once Arteta switched. But Xhaka is not what Arteta really wants as that 8, potentially this is why Vieira was recruited but also why we are looking at someone like Tielemans for that position - or even using Zinchenko there as I think he's capable

I think it's simply economics Bernard. Vieira sounded like it was a deal that required the club to act decisively and quickly. I don't think this necessarily means Tielemans isn't favoured or fancied by Arteta, it could simply mean that he knows he can get him at any point in this window so it wasn't one of the pressing deals. Once he frees up some space he may make is move.

I think you may be overthinking the rationale behind it. That's not to say you're wrong, just the way I read it is that it's just about freeing the space in the squad both physically and financially.

What makes you think Xhaka “is not what Arteta really wants as that 8”? Do you not see Xhaka as a first choice starter next season?

Perhaps I am overthinking it Darren.

Maybe Arteta sees Zinchenko as a CM who can fill in at LB or LM if required. Pep says he seems him more as a creative midfielder and he only really played left back to help the team out.

Just saying.

Yes, give that braincell a rest Bernard.

Thoughts?

He may well play there a bit but despite pep saying that he didn’t play him there at all and regardless if we loan out Tavares he will start a decent number of games at left back. I guess with only a few weeks to go we could see Ben white and Zinchenko start as fullbacks in our first game.

Morning Soc.

I do think we're looking to bring in a CM, but I think we may see deals now being done late in the window. We may not have them in place for the start of the season, which isn't ideal, but I think we can only control part of what we want to do. The rest is a case of waiting to see how the dominoes fall I guess?

Afternoon socrates. I just think there’s a danger in under estimating how highly Arteta rates Xhaka. These are quotes I’ve seen attributed to Xhaka.

“Without Arteta, I would not be here at Arsenal anymore. He helped me a lot when I was completely down.He took me aside, helped me with small things, tactically, as a person, between the team and the club, tried to help me as well with the fans."

Xhaka on almost joining Roma in 2021 "It was very close. Mikel was the guy with Edu, they didn't let me go because they wanted to keep me here. The door was open for me to leave the club as well. But in the end, people decided to keep me here."

Xhaka " I love Arsenal, I love the people around it. They treat me every time with a lot of respect, I try to give the respect back."

Xhaka on Mikel Arteta "He is a freak in a positive way. Tactically, he knows everything. How he prepares the team before training, before the games, is unbelievable. I had a lot of coaches, but I have to put Mikel as one of the top ones in my career."

Back to me. I realise the comments if they’re genuine are by Xhaka rather than Arteta himself. But Arteta must have acted in such a way to give him those opinions. I strongly suspect Xhaka is one of the first names Arteta puts on the team sheet. Hence I really believe if anyone thinks Arteta is going to replace Xhaka with Tielemans anytime soon, they’re living in cloud cuckoo land.

With the current squad I do think he's a certain starter, and I also think his contribution to the team is rated higher by Arteta than 99% of Arsenal fans - however, (and this is just my opinion) if as I suspect Arteta wants to truly replicate the Man City 2 No.8s, then Xhaka's skillset is not what any City player who played in those positions had. In that system I think of players at City like De Bruyne, David Silva, Bernardo Silva, Foden - even Gundogan. Xhaka has his worth but he's better deeper for me than he is in a left side position, high up to mirror Ødegaard

Uwe Seeler dies. Farewell you deadly striker - you broke our hearts in 1970, but you were a great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps3JBN1vAe0

That is sad.

Someone accused me of trying to overthink things earlier. I wonder if you’re doing exactly the same with stuff like wanting to replicate two number 8s. I suspect it’s far easier. Arteta rates Xhaka and will put him in the team.

Possibly, but on the flip side so many of the moves Arteta has made re-building our squad have been similar to the philosophy Pep has had/currently has at City.
Installing a ball playing GK
Playing a lop sided formation with an inverted full back
Attacking in a 3-2-5 formation
Moving from a double pivot to a lone 6 as an elite holding mid (Fernandinho....Rodri....Partey)
Ensuring width is maintained at all times when attacking, even the winger on the opposite side of the ball stays high and wide (listen to Henry talk about this from his time working with Pep)
I wouldn't be unrealistic to think Arteta wants to move to 2 players in his central midfield with a skillset more like Ødegaard's.