They are qualifiers though so it’s not like Ferguson resting giggs for wales friendlies.

I would assume they are trying to avoid relegation. One of those seasons when anyone could go down in the bottom group.

I'm seeing many in the media practically handing us the title. The cynic in me thinks they are setting us up for a fall. There is no way I can see that with about 10 games to go and having to play at Liverpool, Newcastle and City and Chelsea at home. If there were 5 or even 6 games left, okay, I'd feel more relaxed but not this many games left.

We beat a Palace club that is having problems and just lost a manager. It was a great win. But unexpected? No. The level of the win? Expected. Had we beaten the Toon or Chelsea similarly then I'd see it as a statement win. It's Palace in a bad place....at home.

I know some clubs don't like us but I gotta think for the fans of the lower conferences and the lower half of the EPL that aren't our rivals they gotta be rooting for us. City have been having their way in the league. So, I have to assume neutrals of all stripes are cheering for us if they think about it. It's a great story.

Beware of what you wish for? Perhaps Ødegaard struck too early?

Keane missed Ireland's qualifier with Iran before turning up hale and hearty for Manure.

I've never drank the kool aid regarding what makes us special.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/r5oaFNNkE2g

But missing a qualifier against Spain of all teams when it’s far from certain you will finish 2nd in your group. Would be seriously shady

So Hodgson is back at Palace. Up next, Poch returns to Spurs.

…or Harry Redknapp, with Defoe, Crouch and Kranjar in tow to get the band back together

https://twitter.com/reidthegame/status/ ... -j6VVZXEoA

This take from Gary Neville towards the end of last season is worth posting again. He had and still has such a blind spot for us.

“If Arteta gets Arsenal 4th that’s as far as he can take them” it’s a ludicrous statement to make for any team and manager at any time, let alone one where everyone could see the way the recruitment and plan was playing out that the team was only going to get better - of course not many saw a real title shot this season - but it wasn’t hard to predict we’d be right up challenging for top 4.

https://twitter.com/gunnersc0m/status/1 ... -j6VVZXEoA
Another one of his takes on Arsenal and spurs

We have more touches in the box than any team in the league but only rank 12th in the most penalties given this season

I can understand one of the things that gets him upset.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/583931886692439?fs=e&s=m

The full horror of the interlull is setting in. Arsenal are utterly addictive this season and going cold turkey after the recent feast is a bit much.

Gordon Brown for PM?

In their 10 league games leading up to our game with them at the weekend Palace had only conceded 2 goals once. They conceded 1 in 7 of those games and kept a clean sheet in 2 more. So whilst they were on a bad winless run they were still hard to score goals against. We scored 4 with relative ease.

We’re struggling for clean sheets at home but must be averaging over 3 goals a game at home

Yellow away kit next year. Variation of the bruised banana. Bound to sell bucket loads

Or maybe Rafa.

Arsenal 2023-24 away kits....hmmm

Apparently Conte was annoyed with Levy because he vetoed 2 of Conte’s transfers for the summer. Those transfers were Lukaku (30) and De Vrij (31) both would be on extraordinarily high wages and would offer spurs zero resale value. And Lukaku has most recently failed at Chelsea.

Apparently Levy prefers younger players who can be bought cheaper and be coached to improve!

I’m with Levy on the correct approach for Spurs but then if that is the approach you want to take why on earth would you hire Conte who is maybe second only to Mourinho (who he also hired) in wanting ready made experienced players and doesn’t care of the cost or any long term project and really couldn’t give a damn the state of the club is left in when they leave after 2-3 years!

Bonkers

https://amp.footyheadlines.com/6674275136961072586/

These guys take a guess at the kit based on the info released.
Home kit is ‘better scarlet’ (red)…white and a metallic gold
Away kit is a florescent yellow with black details

I’m sure I also saw a 3rd kit mock up which was a dark blue but the 3 stripes on the adidas sleeves were red/white/blue so similar to the training kit just bought out which had the French colours on the stripes

Adidas haven’t really given us a bad kit so far. The black one this year sold out in record numbers

They are in the position where there are older players bossing the dressing room, no respect for a new manager unless he is a 'name'(hence Conti) but then when their yearly challenges are over (EPL,FA Cup) they just go thru the motions. Sound familiar to you.

But then we got lucky with young players who were top class coming thru. I hope they don't get lucky in their rebuild: well that's if they got the balls for a rebuild. Another twenty years of failure ahead.

Luck?

I note the Kroenke out brigade is now silent.

Not having a go at you, by the way. But I do think you need to acknowledge good management. It was not 'luck' that gave Arteta so much rope. And it was not 'luck' that we targetted a particular profile of players, even to the extent of not filling squad holes when we couldn't get the right player.

Funny how people can be utterly wrong about something and yet this doesn't affect their confidence and certainty, or their practice of forming strong opinions based on very little evidence.

Reagan is small g god to Republicans. If they had their way he'd be alongside Washington, Jefferson,Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt on Mt. Rushmore.

There are so many things I could say about him. Mostly bad but no one is 100 percent bad and there are actually a few notable positives. He is though a scoundrel of the highest order. As some of you older members recall Iran held American hostages after the downfall of the Shah in the late 1970s. Jimmy Carter was president. The fact that the hostages got released when Reagan was inaugurated was just too much of a coincidence and it was evident that a deal was struck. It was an open secret for the most part. Congressional investigations didn't unearth anything but no one expected a smoking gun.

Turns out, and this is no surprise, Reagan struck a deal with the Persians. He told them they'd get a better deal if they waited till after the election. As an aside, Nixon did the same to scutter the peace talks in 1967 leading into the 1968 presidential election.

There are a number of things that come out about Reagan. One is that he was a racist. That word is thrown around a bit much in America these days along with homophobe, transphobe, anti-semite, etc. but with Reagan he was caught on Nixon's taping of conversations calling African leaders monkeys and other things. He began his 1980 bid for president by announcing it in Philadelphia, Mississippi. That small town is only famous for one thing in American history. It was a city where 2 Black and 2 Jewish civil rights workers were murdered. He was NOT there to talk glowingly about their bravery but instead to signal to the southern white voters that he was their man by not mentioning what they were known for. In his mind, to them, it didn't exist anymore, lets not talk about it again.

So, he kept American citizens in captivity for an extra 3 months at least for his own ambition. High treason.



Southern text books claim the Civil War was fought over 'state's rights' not slavery. Reagan was their man.

I will def get the white one and if winners of prem lge on the shirt I'll get the yellow one too.

I think one of the biggest things in our ‘recovery’ was Emile Smith Rowe and Saka coming through and kind of carrying the hopes of the fans as well as the team at times.
There are other factors that allowed a degree of patience:
Academy players
Signing younger players
Clear communication from the club to the fans
Visible signs of investment
Covid with no fans in the stadium for tough periods
An early FA Cup win

The mould for spurs to copy is clear, doing it is a whole other ball game!

Since Arteta became manager Arsenal have signed 20 players who would be considered first team signings (loans not included). He’s sold/released 17 players considered first team players (loans not included)

We’ve spent £386m and sold £66m so a total spend of £320m. Rival fans will look at that and say Arteta has been heavily backed and to some degree he has. However the context is the need to turn over almost all of the squad. That £320m net had to stretch to 20 new players which is very different to be given that amount of money to fill 5-6 key gaps in the squad. So we averaged £16m per signing. So when people talk about the money spent it’s worth considering if you have a top team £16m per signing on average could they build a title challenging team as good as we are?

I can’t see Arsenal ‘cutting their losses’ on Tomiyasu. He’s still only 24 and he hasn’t had recurring injuries in the same area. A calf problem last year and a knee problem now which you’d hopefully classify as unlucky from a slip and over stretch.
He’s also a player who can play RB, LB and CB.
I can still see us going for another right back in the summer but maybe only to give us that level of cover to allow players like White to occasionally play CB.

I see that Balogun has hinted he is going to switch national allegiance to the US. Surely England have dropped the ball there.

Kane is getting long in the tooth and the current England squad only has 2 strikers and is overloaded with defenders. (a Southgate squad) is there any harm in chucking a young striker in the squad.

One more to go

Hopefully we're not going to make the same mistake. I would really really love to see Balogun up front for us.
Why pay millions for a player who might not settle and it's unlikely they will score more goals than our Folarin.

Read something somewhere, not sure what, heck I am 72 nb, anyway it made me think that Emile Smith Rowe could do on the right wing what Zinny does on the left?

The thought is making me salivate..........

I think he put a cryptic message on his social media after the latest England squad was announced hinting as you say that he’ll play for the US national team.
You’re right about Kane and us needing a replacement in 3-4 years.

If Balogun wants to play for England I think he has been hard done by not getting a call up to the squad. He’s the second highest scoring English player after Kane. Who else is there? Toney, Watkins…

Coady gets in ahead of Tomori. Balogun doesn't exist because he isn't playing in the PL.

They have produced almost nothing through their academy in years. Unless you have enormous resources, you can't build a successful side without players coming through from underage level.

By luck I mean, Saka and Martenelli being so good and then actually improving. They could have come in been okay but then fell away as sometimes happens with players. look no further than Deli Alli who was with Spurs. Across the club we took a lot of risks, only buying young players, not buying until someone came along who was fit for purpose. With Saka, Martenelli and a few others we actually saved over 120million I feel. Plus our owner stepped up with money and also agreeing to allow players like Aubameyang go for free. That is not to say we didn't make mistakes and we will continue to do so.

You better take this down before Kiwi sees it.

.
Great to see New Zealand putting it's best foot forward in the idiot stakes that seem to encompass the Western world these days .

Had to fill out NZ census forms a few days back .

Question .....Do I identify as [a ] Male [b] Female [c] something else

Next question ....... was I born [ a ] Male [b] Female [c] something else .

Tell you what that provoked a lot of thought on my part .

Arsenal have sent one of the club physio's away with Partey on his international games to keep a close eye on him.

Özil retired.

Haven’t seen much comment here. I think many of our emirates era fans view him as their Dennis Bergkamp type signing. It was an exciting moment but really nothing will ever replace turning on ceefax to see Arsenal signing Bergkamp and staring at it for literally 10 minutes in disbelief

Great in his first 2 seasons but really hit and miss after. Strange combination of amazing talent yet a total lack of commitment. I will always view him as something of a strange character. He never would have worked in Artetas system at all and even when Arteta had joined he had basically checked out at that point. Will be interesting to see the way he is viewed in future.