Seems chelsea have signed Nkunku. Good player and one that Emery wanted if you recall.

My goodness they are chucking money around.

I do wonder what would have happened had Emery been given the players he asked for? He wanted zaha, nkunku and Nzonzi didn’t he, he got Pépé, Ceballos and Torreira

Think the bloke got let down a bit.

Paul Scholes on social media today
"anyone remember a time when wingers helped their full backs?" with a picture of Giggs and Beckham.

I love the ex-Man U players with their knives out for anything Man U. Of course the old successful players are going to expect high standards but there is a continued arrogance of anybody connected to Man U that they simply expect the success because they had it in the past, and they also think because they can spend huge amounts of money that should equal quality which should equal success.

Man U experts in the media should be professing humility and patience. ten Hag has shown he can set teams up well and get more than the sum of the parts from them. They need to let him make some very tough decisions without putting them under the microscope. ten Hag himself obviously needs to find a way to win over the support be that winning matches or simply showing that he can change attitudes and style on the pitch.

I think you're right. There was a bit of a mess of roles, we had Sven scouting players, Sanllehi wheeling and dealing and Emery was effectively told to just do training and matches.
Football has certainly moved on from the one man show the likes of Wenger and Ferguson employed but there has to be a clear strategic approach and clearly defined roles and responsibility that all those at the top buy in to. Personally I can't see any way a team works where the manager has had no say in player recruitment.

In modern times surely the process is:
Manager sets out his team and tactics and advises his sporting director the sort of player he wants and how he fits in the team - listing as many attributes as possible to refine the search.
The scouting/sporting director then come up with a list of players fitting that mould.
Then as a team they work through that list looking at potential cost, wages, mentality, fit, personality and all come to an agreement together of the priority order to chase.

The ronaldo stuff is funny. The manager is quite right to drop him but Ten Haag is damned if he does or doesn’t. Roy Keane was slagging them off for not playing or selling him.

Wow. That bit about if we beat Liverpool made me sit up. That’s a hell of a statistic.

And we shouldn’t go into that game with any sort of inferiority complex whatsoever.

Indeed so.

And then compare and contrast to Florian Balogun at Reims this season. He is definitely making the most of his opportunity.

https://paininthearsenal.com/2022/10/03 ... e-1-reims/

Xhaka has scored 16 goals for Arsenal, over 40% of those have been
3 v Man U
2 v Chelsea
1 v Liverpool
1 v Spurs

At the pace he's going, Haaland is going to destroy any season long scoring record in the modern era. I just hope he doesn't stay in the league long enough to make people forget Henry as the greatest of them all in the EPL.
I'm hoping Real Madrid or Barcelona will come calling or PSG. The guy is a freak of nature. A one man force.

This is what pundits are saying about Haaland



and

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lqHq6_SM-0c

Next batch of Prem fixtures
Liverpool (h)
Leeds (a)
Southampton (a)
Forest (h)
Chelsea (a)
Brighton (h)
Wolves (a)

In any normal season such is the strength of the league and our expectations of Arsenal you'd look at that and think maybe only 1 'easy win' fixture. Right now I see 3 tough fixtures (Liverpool, Chelsea, Brighton) and 4 I expect us to win (Leeds, Saints, Forest, Wolves) - only Wolves from those 4 have anything resembling a decent defensive structure and they've just sacked their manager.

What a message it would send out if we were to beat Liverpool at the weekend and go and do the same to Chelsea. Play at our best with our best 11 and I see no reason why we can't do both of those.

If we could take 17 out of those 21 points I think we'd be in a clear battle with City for the title going in to the world cup break

Also, getting way, way ahead of myself here but if the title really did turn in to a 2 horse race between us and City would we expect to be the neutral's favourites or preferred team - cheering us on? I wouldn't bet on it. Most people wanted City to win it instead of Liverpool mostly because of their arrogant fans - I don't doubt many will feel the same about us not just Spurs fans.

Seeing Foden score a hat-trick, Saka frightening every left-back in the league, Ben White locking down the right side of the defence - why is it that Southgate persists with such a dull brand of football loyal to those who are at best out of form and at worst simply not very good at all.

I've long since thought as an International manager you need to identify who your best players are and what makes them so great and replicate as much of that in your team as you can - and your relatively simplistic instruction is to 'do what you do every week for your club'

If Spurs had beaten us the media would have ploughed in to Arteta and Arsenal on the basis that we knew exactly how Spurs would play and we were naive to set up and play to their strengths. So now that Arsenal thoroughly beat Spurs can we say that Conte was completely naive to play so handsomely in to the hands of Arteta? Everyone knew exactly how Arsenal would play, we'd have a high line, dominate the ball and territory, attack in a 2-3-5 and look for quick short passes and to draw spurs to one side before overloading the other. So Spurs with their passive low block played in to our hands no?

I'm being a bit facetious because the media tend to have to have a winner and loser in every big match up. The reality is usually somewhat more blurred.

I agree with you Rich but Sanllehi obviously still thinks differently.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailym ... stake.html

I'm desperate for us to sort out the contracts of Saliba, Saka and Martinelli - potentially 3 £100m players right there.

I had a look around the contracts of the other top 6 clubs and all of the following players are out of contract in June 2023.

Arsenal: Elneny, Nelson
Man U: De gea, Rashford, Shaw, Dalot, Ronaldo, Fred, Jones
Chelsea: Kante, Jorginho, thiago silva
Liverpool: Firminho, Keita, Ox, Milner, Adrian
City: Gundogan, Carson, (Mendy!)
Spurs: lenglet (loan finishes)

Now, some may sign extensions but you can see where the problems are coming up for some teams, they will need to invest heavily in some cases to just stand still.

If you look at players with 18 months left on their deal (the ones clubs should be getting nervous about and trying very hard to tie down or shift) you have

June 2024 contract expiry
Arsenal: Saka, Saliba, Cédric (martinelli, Xhaka, holding all have a club options of a further year)
Man U: Lindelof, Wan-Bissaka, Martial
Chelsea: Mount, Kovacic, Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Aubameyang, Azpilicueta
Liverpool: Thiago, Matip
City: Foden, Walker
Spurs: Kane, Dier, Sanchez, Moura, Lloris, Doherty, Perisic, Forster

I find these lists very interesting. More and more players are running down their deals (as wenger predicted) and a lot of these players who these clubs would be happy to not re-sign won't be able to be shifted for decent transfer fees due to their wages - we've suffered this pain already and are mostly out of the other side. Lets see how the others get on

The thing with both Tottenham and Man Utd is they are built well for counter attacks, especially Tottenham who only need to lob a half decent ball up to Kane or Son for them to create things. But that's just from an attacking sense. Neither team is great defensively, and still have too many players in key defensive areas that are pretty mediocre. If your gameplan consists of dropping deep, defending and hitting teams on the break you'd prefer to be a lot more stable defensively and I'm still waiting for that penny to drop for the pundits.

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/1576 ... VHhLogMtyw

Xhaka voted Arsenal player of the month - a message from him to the fans.

He seems so happy and content right now, credit to both him and Arteta for turning it round. He was vilified both inside and particularly outside the club far worse than his actual performances warranted. His mistakes were given far greater scrutiny and emphasis and the things he did well went unnoticed.

He's absolutely thriving in this leadership role with this group of players.

Boring Monday at work.....so I was looking at the WC fixtures and came up with the following where we could see AFC players up against each other...

Nov 24 Portugal vs Ghana
Nov 25 England vs USA
Nov 28 Brazil vs Switzerland

Interesting interview with Ødegaard where he said they'd practiced in training getting Partey in to those positions because they knew Spurs would allow him that space, or they'd sit deep and close down the other options.
Considering Partey has had something like 56 shots from outside the box without scoring that was some epiphany to make it part of the game plan

Also more so since he was sacked from Fulham.

Shots from distance are a much better game pan than usual if Spurs sit that deep. Two of our goals came directly or indirectly from a long(ish) shot. Saka’s was I think in the box but fairly far out and Jesus with the rebound. Can’t see why other clubs can’t do that if Spurs drop deep and either look to score or get a deflection or rebound rather than just lob in crosses to Dier’s head. Hopefully we’ve shown the league a blueprint to get some joy against their park the bus then kick and rush bollocks.

We've been brilliant so far this season, but talk of the title only 8 games in strikes me as very optimistic to say the least. Personally I think City must be long odds on. If Haaland does stay fit, I'd say nailed on. And that's not hero worship, just seeing what's staring us all in the face.
For me, getting back in the CL, and persuading Saliba to put pen to paper would make it a highly satisfactory season. I have no worries about Saka extending, but Saliba's going to have every big club in Europe after him.

Arsenal are the most fouled team in the league, averaging 14 fouls per game. But our opponents have actually received fewer yellow cards than we have this season 14 v 15

If contracts aren’t in place by the World Cup you may have a problem. The World Cup is a window to showcase players and if one or two put in impressive performances they could have all manner of clubs trying to turn their heads. I think Saka unlikely, Martinelli slightly more but Saliba most as centre backs or his quality aren’t in abundance and a player of his ilk in a few years could be worth an easy 80-100 million.

Morning bromley. To be fair I don’t think anyone is suggesting Arsenal are likely to win it. City are clearly red hot favourites. However, what some of us do or may think (certainly me anyway) is that with only eight games played, it is still way too early to count City as definite or certain winners. I would have said that even if they’d won all their eight games, let alone dropping four points so far in them, which of course they have done.

Who knows, perhaps Haaland will remain injury free for the entire campaign? But if he does it’ll be out of the ordinary considering he missed 33 games through injury in his last three full seasons, and Hazuki pointing out he’s never played 30 games in a league campaign before.

I would bet my wine collection that Arteta is telling the players they have a chance of winning it. Because if he’s not and is telling them they have no hope at all of finishing above City, putting such a negative mind set into the players could even compromise (hopefully not scupper but who knows) our fight for a top four place. I think Arteta telling our players it’s impossible to finish above City would show mental weakness, and I don’t believe that’s a characteristic that applies to him.

Headline 'Chelsea are monitoring Martinelli's contract situation' - he has 2 years left plus a further year option for the club.

Perhaps Arsenal should mention to a reporter or two that we’re monitoring Reece James and Mason Mount’s contract situations?

I never expected this situation where we would have Saliba starting all 8 premier league games and being absolutely outstanding.
The fact that there was so much uncertainty with him being on loan for all his time here and many including me thinking Arteta didn't fancy him and he wouldn't get much playing time which would lead to him getting frustrated and looking for a way out.
This is actually the perfect scenario where Saliba looks totally invested , playing magnificently , celebrates the goals with so much passion and Arteta is praising him to the hills and has forced Ben White to right back.
It would have been very interesting to see what the starting line up would have been had Tomiyasu been fully fit for the Palace game.
Very likely he would have gone for the tried and tested of White and Gabriel which would have had Saliba kicking his heels on the bench apart from the Europa league games and league cup.
So happy for the boy. He looks so composed and his reading of the game is superb.
The way he dribbled out of our box on saturday with such authority and composure was a joy to behold.
i think Edu and Arteta are aware of how special he is and will look to tie him down as soon as possible.
Saliba says he is happy in london so here's hoping.

I thought exactly the same.

A rollicking good NLD win just makes the entire week so much more enjoyable doesn’t it?

With Cédric fit it looks like we could rest almost all of the first 11 for Thursday
Turner, Cédric, Holding, Tomiyasu, Tierney, Lokonga, Xhaka, Vieira, Marquinhos, Nelson, Nketiah

I’m not happy about risking Xhaka but the guy never seems to get injured or show any fatigue. I don’t think Nwaneri can play as I read that in Uefa comps you have to be 16.
Not sure who else might come in to midfield. Smith possibly but it’s a risk in only the 2nd game in the group.

It shows that we need a little bit more depth because we’re only missing Elneny and Emile Smith Rowe. Another central midfielder and a winger in January and we have a squad that covers pretty much all bases

Arteta’s squad after his first summer window. Only 12 of the 30 remain

Michael Oliver is the ref for the game v Liverpool

Anybody use this one pre match ? Ignore the shite review it’s a nice place

https://www.standard.co.uk/reveller/res ... 09464.html

Amazing isn’t it.

I’ve been laughing all week so far.

Belter of a game that’s stuck in the memory, it was complete Tottenham bingo too.

Evening Bernard
I am sure Arteta isn’t telling our players that anything is impossible, finishing above City or anything else. I would hope he’s telling them to believe in themselves and focusing on being the best they can be on a consistent basis. But I doubt he’s mentioning trophies of any sort at this point.
Of course stranger things have happened than City’s season going tits up - it’s just hard to see. From hoping for top 4 at the start of the season, it’d be a major disappointment not to make top 3 now, and we are live contenders in all the cups. Definitely looking to win one, preferably the Europa.

“…..you need to believe in yourselves and believe in each other, because I tell you now guys it is a pleasure to work with you every single day and if we keep the belief, humility and hard work every single day we have a chance to do something really special, really special….ok let’s go!”

Maybe I’ve watched the documentary too many times

Wonder if there’s a realistic threat of Barcelona slipping into the Europa League this season? Three games played by each club in Group C and Bayern are top with 9 points, Inter are second with 6 (they beat Barcelona tonight), Barcelona are third with only 3 points, and Pizeri (the group’s laughing stock) have 0 points.

Before the group started it looked like one of Bayern, Inter and Barcelona would finish third to drop into the Europa League. I was hoping it would be Inter as I think we’d remain the strongest team in the competition even with them joining it. After winning all three matches, Bayern look likely to go through. But with only 3 points from beating Pizeri but losing to Bayern and Inter, Barcelona’s top two place looks under severe threat. If Barcelona do end up in the Europa League, that will make it harder for Arsenal to win it.

I wonder if Arteta would consider taking back Guendouzi. He is thriving in his role at Marseille, and is Captain at that.
Tavares is also enjoying himself there. Hope his relationship with Arteta is not ruined to the extent he won't want to play for Arsenal again.
Was watching highlights of the Marseille-Sporting match. And Alexis is still the dynamo that he is. Still full of energy.

More chance of him signing Elvis.

These stats are why I just can’t see what Spurs do as being sustainable. They’re too reliant on creating a low number of high quality chances and having elite finishers convert those chances at an unsustainable rate. I honestly think teams will work them out as you really just need to stop their only method of scoring, they don’t have multiple threats.