So the great new dawn is upon us. We have rid ourselves of Arsene Wenger and his gang of incompetents, and replaced them with high class people that can bring us the success we deserve.
It’s absolutely fantastic. The players are drinking water, smiling,training hard, young players are involved and the manager is hands on on the training ground. These things never happened before , now did they?
That there have been major changes in personnel is undeniable. That they are all top people in their fields of expertise appears to be the case, they are certainly experienced with good track records. Its more people with more individual responsibility and a coach with much less. Modern football? Or should I not say that because “modern football” is frowned upon by the “we want our Arsenal back” hoards. But I digress.
The point is almost every fan is happy, us included, the future looks bright. But what has actually changed other than our perceptions?
We have spent about £70m up until now, I suspect there will be outgoing and our net spend will be considerably less. So are we spending more? Is the new regime spending the money Arsene refused to? Seems not ?
Have we dipped into the £250m in the bank that should be spent on making the team as good as it can be? Seems not ? Perhaps that’s not for spending then, or not anywhere like that figure?
Are we competing for the likes of Marhez ,with City, or are we still buying from the second shelf ? It seems we are not and we still are ! So what’s the big change?
Have we tied Aaron Ramsey down to a new deal, or is it dragging on? Dithering?
Now here is the rub, the moment many readers start shifting uncomfortably on their seat, searching for an answer that doesn’t destroy all their hard earned narratives.
If you are happy with all things Arsenal now, you have a certain Stan Kroenke to thank.
Without spending any more of the clubs money, and of its reserves ,or dipping into his own pocket for a single silver dollar, he has given everyone what they wanted ? Without being a football man or spending time at the club he has granted the wishes of the permanently malcontent.
His useless puppet (Ivan) is now the dogs bollocks. We are Kroenke FC , being driven by Ivan, and he is the very image of a none football man.
So if everything is rosy in the garden, and I hope it is, then we should be very much KROENKE IN ? He has come through big time and perhaps all the hate was for nowt?
Positively Arsenal 
layksite those players are back with the squad tomorrw, each got around 3 weeks off, to have been on the tour they would have had t only get 2 weeks which is not enough under fifa guidlines
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Have BPL clubs shot themselves in the foot by having their transfer window close on the 9th of August, the day before the BPL season starts, as Spain, Germany, France and Italy transfer windows remain open to 31st of August, a full 3 weeks longer. A 3 week spell that they can still buy from BPL clubs.
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Lacazette “I never said Aubameyang’s arrival was bad for me, only people in the press said it was bad. I was happy because I knew I could play with him.”
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Woz🏴@wozthegooner
Since Mesut Ozil joined the club in the premier league he has created a total of 464 chances over 12,068 minutes, that averages at one chance created every 26 minutes of play.
Averages 3.5 chances per 90.
Of these chances just 11.6% (54) have actually been converted.
As a team in the premier league since Mesut Ozil joined The Arsenal we average a chance conversion rate of 18.1%.
If we applied that average to Mesut Ozil’s chance creation his current assist total in the premier league would stand at 83 assists (16 per league season)
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two transfer rumors today, Akpom to PAOK and Ospina to Besiktas, oddly both for just £2M, can see why Akpom fee would be low, but Ospina surely should be much more
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Eduardo, we shouldn’t be selling Ospina. He is a good goalkeeper, but has never been allowed to live down one or 2 high profile errors. He is no more error prone than Cech, but the latter has a reputation to live on and the new goalkeeper does not look like a significant upgrade on Ospina. The only difference is he has some temporary goodwill until his first error.
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passenal it seems Ospina wants out, he wants to be first choice somewhere and it seems it aint getting that at AFC, but its still odd that we might only get £2M for him. I would have thought he was much more valuable than that,
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the AFC squad are back in England. two games in the next week to complete preseason
I think all the rest of our WC players, bar Welbeck, join training tomorrow, including new signings Torreira and Lichtsteiner. Joel Campbell one of those returning, but from his comments its to sort out a move.
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That’s the point eduardo, he only wants out because he is not number one here and has no prospect of it, but I don’t see why as his rivals are not significantly better. I cannot understand how we spent so much on what appears not to be a significant upgrade?
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well clearly both Wenger and now Emery think he is not good enough to be our first choice keeper
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On players returning early, Eriksen played in Spurs friendly 3 or 4 days ago. Also suggestion City will bring back a lot early and could make opening game.
Supposedly a case of players wanting to come back early but most likely some leaning on from club to do so.
I’m happy with us sticking with he full break for all our lot.
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2 mill is definitely low for Ospina- Liverpool got 13 mill for their keeper with a handful of Wales cap and one good loan under his belt!
What can you do,though. Clubs will obviously leverage it if they believe a player wants to leave and club is ok with that.
Guardian transfer interactive thing lists price for Jeff at 2.7 million.
Again, can look at that and think of Ibe going for 15 mill couple of years ago and shake head, but I think it is mostly just one of those things.
Though if Liverpool get anywhere near that 20 mill they supposedly want for Ings that might push me over the edge.
Has perception played some role in it- i.e undue negativity against us and our players affected prices? Is it largely a product of how we’ve spent relative to them in past- with them having more of a scattergun approach- some of which come off big time, many who don’t but yet still retain/improve value in weird market?
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haven’t seen many praise our French scout Gilles Grimandi for discovering/recommending Matteo Guendouzi, seems it does not fit the current narrative
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Rich as I said yesterday, the 3 weeks were up for some of our players who return tomorrow, on Wednesday and Thursday, but as team not back from tour till this evening, it made sense not to return till tomorrow.
Also just how much could any of them have lost fitness in 3 weeks, especially as they do private training while on their break. Should be no reason why every one of our players, bar maybe Welbeck, are not available for selection for our opening game.
as for city and cfc players etc going to be available for them, all I can say is that they must feel that 3 weeks off has not done anything negative to their fitness levels. why should it, if a player during the season is out injured for 3 weeks, we don’t normally see clubs give them more time off to play reserve games etc to get match fit again. I think too many people still have the notion that its like 20 or 30 years ago, when players would come back after summer break a stone or two if not more, over weight, and completely out of condition. It just does not happen now.
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passenal
Might be a bit heightist of me, but I could never fully get behind Ospina.
Thought he made some good saves; pretty good and best we have at charging off line; and also has good hands (impressed plenty of times with how ball stuck with him).
Bit like with short centre backs though, I really dislike idea that with the right ball we are in huge trouble- i.e a right ball that another goalkeeper would have a good chance of winning he has very little chance of winning, and prob won’t even come for.
Imperfect way of looking at things but for me he is, overall, a 7/10 job in elite terms for a keeper. Cech is about the same now. Still excellent at judging angles when a player has to act quickly. Hopefully Leno a bit better overall.
It sure is an imperfect way of looking at it but if former two are say 7.1 or 7.3’s and Leno a 7.7 or whatever it will be worth some points.
To be more confident of getting an improvement we’d either have to try spot next big thing or pay 50 million or so if one from that tiny band is available.
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Arsenal goalkeeper Joao Virginia played the whole of the final as Portugal won the U19 European Championship by beating Italy 4-3 in the final after extra time. His only other appearance in the tournament was as a second half sub in the semi final.
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Rich you might like the latest keeper we are being linked to, Gillingham’s Tomas Holy, the Czechoslovakian is 6ft 9in
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I agree with Pass on Ospina. Ospina of the better GKs we had around in quite some time. Think the stick he is getting for being “short” is just ridiculous. Someone started it and people just ran with it. He is barely 2cm’s shorter than Jordan Pickford and British pundits cant rave enough about him.
Eddie. I get your point re the 3 weeks not being long enough to forget how to play ball, but isn’t it about just coming off a looong season and just getting a bit of rest before jumping right back in?
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labo but that is the point, they get the 3 weeks to rest, but should that mean they have lost their football sharpness in that 3 weeks. Why is it they don’t lose their sharpness when off injured for 3 weeks during the season. I can understand why a player joining a new club, or working under a new manager/set up like at AFC, might need time to adjust and learn any new system being put in place, but why should any of the MC, MU, THFC, LFC, players need much prep. the CFC players likely in same scenario as ours.
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ed
ha, but no. That’s a bit much
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Klopp and Pep’s boys with their full-on gengepressing stuff, game after game after game, might ran into trouble as the season wears on with their players barely having any time off.
José will park the bus all season long because Santa didn’t bring him his gifts, so hopefully his players turn on him. Opening up the door for Arsenal – first season bounce. Ha! Let me put away my crystal ball.
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If AW had no confidence in Ospina, why did he play in all cup games? Ospina, is not short, but that is the perception that has persisted throughout his AFC career. He’s probably better off out of it as he will never be accepted by the mob. But I see no evidence that Leno is any taller or better than him, but I guess he is a name that people have heard of and he cost a lot of money.
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labo the city and lfc players have still got their 3 weeks off, it just remains to be seen if they throw them back in right off for bpl games without many if any preseason games.
Shaqiri got his 3 weeks, swiss knocked out on 3rd, he joined lfc squad on 24th, and was thrown right in, we gave Xhaka and lichtsteiner an extra few days.
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passenal there is a difference in not having confidence in him to be first choice (if AW did, why was Ospina never our no.1), and appeasing a no.2 by giving him cup games, which for me was just the easy way out to stop the first choice kicking up when not given the big cup games, and at the same time keeping a good reserve happy enough.
By the way Ospina’s bio says he is 6ft9 (which for me is just a little short of ideal) while Leno is 3inches taller
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The point is, if we we’re going to spend that kind of money, it should have been on someone to replace Cech, who is on the decline, rather than to replace our number 2 with the same for more money. I sincerely hope I end up eating my words, but I thought the same thing about Cech and he never convinced me. The CB’s and FB’s got all the blame for our poor defensive performances while our poor goalkeeper got a free pass. It’s easy to look good in an ultra defensive set up, but in an attacking team, he was not the best fit.
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well I think Leno is likely to be our first choice keeper this season.
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ultimately, neither Cech or Leno fill me with confidence and Ospina was our goalkeeper when we won the FA cup against Chelsea. I’m not suggesting he’s better, but he’s certainly no worse he just never had the backing of a significant group of fans, which was unfair when he was never forgiven for his errors, while our number one made as many, if not more errors and got off Scott free based on a reputation that is at least 10years out of date!
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On what basis would Leno be number one? I know nothing about him other than his pre-season performances and he has done nothing to suggest he is an upgrade on what we had before
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For all my lack of expertise I’m impressed by Leno and Martinez…
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Really excited about Reise Nelson, Emile Smith-Rowe and Matteo Guendouzi….
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I used to watch a lot of Bundesliga and Leno has impressed me over the years, good reflexes and normally good distributor. Also I don’t think we spend £19M on him and not put him in double quick.
also passenal, it was not the supporters who had the choice to pick Ospina or not, it was Wenger, and way more often than not, he picked Cech over him, despite Cech making errors, so either Wenger played favorites, or what he was seeing from Ospina in his games and in training was deemed worse than cech
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sorry by the way when I say worse than cech I mean not as good,
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Lothar Matthaus with world famous civil rights advocate
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“I love you man!”
http://images.sportbuzzer.de/v1/photos/raw/28-06-2018-russland-moskau-wladimir-putin-m-prasident-von-russland-begrusst-den-/large-16-9
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I take it Mr Mattheus got as much stick in the German press as Ozil for being photographed with world leaders, of a type?
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the laughable thing is that Germany have had Erdogan for something like 16 state visits
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Labo, I’m sure Peps world class medical team will ensure they remain in peak condition
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Chelsea prepare £30m bid for Aaron Ramsey, 30 mill might get his left leg, what a piss take
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Matteo Guendouzi
There is so much to like about this player
Great spot Gilles Grimandi
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https://twitter.com/i/status/1023260987804344321
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WWB
Is the new kid another find for Grimandi?
I presumed that he was another signing made by the trinity, alongside Kolasinic and some other recent signings?
Hopefully he’ll prove to be another big find for Giles to put in the scrapbook alongside Koscielny. The Lorient Connection?
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Very promising start from Guendouzi. Watched first half hour again of PSG, pause button at the ready, and he was prominent and impressive.
Think he may encounter similar issue to Torreira in that both like to draw free kicks in tricky situations by putting their body in front of opponent and going down when touched.
Do that in prem and our pgmol pals will give them call much less than they are used to, perhaps especially in dangerous areas.
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Akpom seemingly on way to PAOK for £2M with a 10% sell on clause.
also looks like Ospina to Besiktas for €2M loan fee with €6M purchase option
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yeah Rich, we seen Coquelin get second yellow for handball when he did that.
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finsburyp
July 30, 2018 at 9:46 am
WWB
Is the new kid another find for Grimandi?
Fins
Put it this way
The way it was explained to me was.
During one of the many meetings about Players missed in the French market (Kante and Mahrez were held up as example) Giles G was tasked with a profile age range
Guendouzi was one of a few players (I don’t believe it was more than 5) to track all youth players.
I think Guendouzi was the first one to ‘Bobb’ up and Arsenal tied down (Images eh? Football speak)
Probably not politcaly correct to say this
There is a vicious and salacious rumor that AW assured Guendouzi that Arsenal was the right place to go. But there is a narrative to follow here and I think we know what that is.
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WwwB very similar to what I was told, the lad is a GG spot, he tracked him all last season
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Ed. It’s tricky. Those free kicks can be so handy.
Kane winning a lot of them against Columbia (different part of pitch admittedly) played big role in them frustrating Columbia for much of game. Think it was one of the areas England were more effective in than previously and it was led by the Spurs lot.
Just don’t see us being allowed the advantages of it though.
Didn’t remember much of it with Torreira this world cup, but it stuck out quite a lot in the highlights clips beforehand that he uses good timing in tight spots to get between opposition and ball to win free kicks.
We’ll see, but it’s looked to me for years like refs are less likely to give us free kicks in those situations if it leads to a good break for opposition.
Bit like the Xhaka one at Everton last year. It was a foul and ,at best, one a ref who couldn’t be 100% sure was a foul would still almost always give to defensive team to avoid prospect of goal being scored from what was likely a foul.
Ozil virtually never gets those calls his way when there’s some contact into back of him before or same time as winning ball.
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good point on ozil not getting those kind of fouls, commentators brush it off as “seen them given”, or more normally “Ozil has to be stronger there”
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Should imagine the odious northern oiks are practising there spelling of both for their soft AFC red card scrapbook and performance for Mikey review
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Ed
Only one I remember for sure leading to a goal was vs Liverpool in that horrible 5-1 but I think there’ve been another 3-5 like it. One, at home, was for an incredibly clear foul on him.
Maybe another at Swansea last year where Bellerin gave him ball in a situation Ozil was likely to lose it, flew past him and then they got in easily down our right to score equaliser.
I’ve felt in past we should look to counteract it in dangerous areas by expecting it to happen. Maybe that’s sort of thing torreira will give us.
Similar thing, despite nonsense from premier sports commentary, I’ve not picked out any real difference with how we play out from back yet.
Of the five promising moments PSG had in that 30 mins I closely watched, four were from bad passes out of defence after they had applied squeeze, two when we played it left to right out to Bellerin who was left facing our goal, someone behind him, and poor options. Not sure if that carries on throughout match but think it was similar vs Atletico.
Anyway, I can’t see many ways of changing that, aside from being more risk averse, i.e hitting it long early before it’s too late, which means playing from back less, or having a midfield player who is very alert and very adroit at helping out defenders, esp full backs, who have been boxed in by pressing. I’m hoping that’ll be a big strength of Torreira’s game.
Should be noted one of our great first half chances- narrow offside Aubameyang back heeled in- came when they pressed us in Bellerin’s corner, we just about got ball out and then rapidly had a break where they had only two players in their own half.
Didn’t see start of move which led to first goal but maybe something similar happened as on that occasion they only had one defender in their half.
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