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 
less than 245 hours left in the transfer window, I expect Arsenal to have a few players leave, not sure if we will sign another
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Goalkeeper Matt Macey has joined League One side Plymouth Argyle on loan for the season.
The 23-year-old made two first-team appearances last season – against Red Star Belgrade in the UEFA Europa League and Norwich City in the Carabao Cup.
Matt, who joined us from Bristol Rovers five seasons ago, moves to the Pilgrims to gain more first-team experience, having already enjoyed loan spells at Accrington Stanley and Luton Town.
We would like to wish Matt well this season.
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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Akpom undergoing medical with PAOK in Greece. Seems we get €2m fee with sell on clause
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the arsenal media team must be tired after the Singapore trip, as no photos yet of today training or the returning WC players, including new signings Torreira and Lichtsteiner.
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Rich,
I think we’re on safe ground if we state that passing out the back is the bigger signature of Emery’s style as opposed to any OTT gegenpressing.
I didn’t watch many Man City games so can’t really comment upon their style. I remember that it was AFC who were pressing City back in the bright opening spell of CC final before a brain fart at the back allowed some striker called Aguero a free run at goal (cech not at fault!). After that the City games were purged from mind and I can’t remember much else of those encounters.
Then there was the magical spell of pressing against Liverpool, three goals in a few minutes. That stands out. You’d hope. Or are the narratives more powerful for some then the actual footy that they watch? That was what stood out alongside the last equaliser in that brilliant contest for Liverpool, and AW’s loss of faith in Kolasinac (or his struggles with injury), and the inability of the new team the transfer dream team to find a better or equivalent LB to Monreal, or even Gibbs??? (LB not LWB!).
The challenge regarding “pressing”, which will not be mentioned in any of the confirmation bias bollocks so beloved by our Narrative spinners, which they churning out to the click ATM, reeling in the little fishers and the £, it is not a question of if UE will get them to press as they did against Liverpool that day, or Man Utd or Chelsea or others on other days, but what level of consistency he’ll be able to get them to play at, and how he’ll adjust when the juice level is lower, as in three days after a big intense game. To be clear: How different will any subtle variations in the fitness training actually be? We’ll find out!
In the meantime there’ll be errors as they try and pass out the back.
N.B.:
Ye Olde Mertesacker was so good at playing it out the back, even better then Kozza, that some even coined an expression to describe the many goals that he’d set up….
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…AFC would often go long to beat the press, that’s where Giroud and before him Adebayor (prior to retirement) came in.
My preference as everyone knows is to see the odd ball over the top onto a fast forward when stretching the opponent, though watching Giroud even when he wasn’t getting the fouls he deserved was an amazing spectacle too. Can’t complain when your targetman is the best on the planet…though some extremist puritans preferred that enlightened path.
So I’m looking forward to how things evolve after Auba’s first pre-season. Shame Xhaka hasn’t been tuning the radar just yet, but I’m hopeful he will, and looking forward to the football…
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There are so many questions about who will be our starting 11 this season, all the way through the team. It will be interesting to see how we line up, after all the years of Wenger we sort of had a good idea who was his first choice 11, but with Emery here now, we don’t know him well enough to do more than wildly guess what his starting 11 will be.
Who will Unai pick
Leno or Cech
Bellerin or Lichtsteiner
Monreal or Kolasinac
who will be the starting CB’s, will it be 2 or 3 of them.
same in Midfield, a 2 or a 3,
will it be 2 from Ramsey, Ozil and Mkhitaryan, or will all 3 start with one up front
as said above, will it be Aubameyang as main striker, or will he form a duo with Lacazette, if we push Aubameyang out wide left, then which midfielder drops out.
its a real mix of emotion, a bit nervous cos we don’t know, yet excited cos its something new and something to look forward to see being revealed.
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Fins
My memories of Emery’s Sevilla are a bit hazy. Been impressed with them lots over years in their big La Liga games at home (seen them give Barca and Real great games playing skilful intense football) but no idea which of them were with Emery or without.
Do remember them being excellent in that Europa final vs Pool though and schooling them, again with lovely skill and passing, in the 2nd half.
Enjoyed that one a lot. Always like the midfield with superior technique and skill (and bravery?) to prevail over teams based largely on pressing, harrying, mistake hunting etc. (Sevilla doing Utd away last year was another treat)
Also watched them win it year before which was another cracking game.
One idea I had of Emery ,from Sevilla, was that he liked to have two big midfielders in his three (Mbia Krychowiak, and then Nzonzi Krychowiak in 2015 and 2016), plus a very skilled technician (Banega both times). Nzonzi is not an ordinary big guy to me though, as I rate his passing very highly.
Quick look at 2014 final shows it was Mbia, Rakitic and Carrico (six foot and either a cb or dm apparently)
Ah, we’ll see more in coming weeks and months. Looking forward to it.
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Rich
My instinct is that his preference for two CMs behind a third or tennish player (probably the new gaffer will experiment different roles with Ozil, away vs home etc) will be eerily reminiscent of midfield that has both Song & Diaby behind Fabregas (shame Phil Dowd was more interested in balancing the field of play for the likes of Barton, especially when Joey didn’t like it up him, getting thrown across the pitch like a rag doll by a one handed and one legged Diaby etc: It’s so hard to dislike Diaby!)
I’m looking forward to seeing the self confessed AW student’s variations on the above over the course of the season above.
My hope is that this will be a space free of regurgitated Gibberish churned out by the blaggers with the useless and often malicious or disingenuous record, and somewhere where Arsenal supporters can enjoy the legacy left for the younger coaches to build upon, the season ahead.
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(@ 11:00 am, 30/7/18)
I doubt Ospina will be sold for 2m. 5-8m more likely for an international with gazillion caps but 12 months left on his contract. Any which way I enjoyed having him at the Arse. A tad fragile but an intelligent and peaceful guy.
If Chuba Akpom can buckle down and work really hard, he might still become a really good footballer. I’d have liked him to move to Germany instead of Greece though for many reasons. Best of luck to him and may we get to see him in the Super Eagles team in the near future.
Losing Joel Campbell hurts because of his talent level. But with the PL being so physically intense and impatient, even AW couldn’t bring the best out of him. Stability, trust, and patience in this guy should surely yield greatness of a sumptuous kind. For the lucky team that gets JC, be sincere and show him love and he will pay back fully. Best of luck JC.
Jenko’s leaving as well. An untimely AW experiment that never bore the right fruits. “Not good enough” many say? Maybe but a committed athlete resides within gooner Carl. A clean slate solution best achieved via the Championship with a team & manager that believe in him and you never know, CJ25 might be back in the PL for the long haul. Best of luck to ya Carl. Stay strong.
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< clarification above.
Song & Diaby/Denilson combos usually had one behind the other, vaguely similar to the role we except to see from the new CM. And as the new Uruguayan has a different physique he'll be playing the role differently to Song, or Busquets etc.
Torreira was a forward player converted to a deep cm? More Denilson then Song, and as his opponents weren't allowed to kick and knee his back repetitively looks like his career hasn't been curtailed and he's been alllwed to grow and develop unlike one or two or three former CMs that we can all easily refer to. Who were quite simply hacked off the park. Repetitively so (not an opinion but an evidential and easily affirmed observation).
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<
Denilson went on to make 100 apps for São Paulo, winning one bauble before spending the last two or three years in the Middle East etc.
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jeez Emery it now letting Wenger pet Robert Pires into training sessions too, this everything different now with new regime, seems very similar to the stale out of date old regime.
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Campbell, Monreal and Xhaka also in training today
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we have finally replaced Flamini
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Fulham have completed the signing of Newcastle striker Aleksandar Mitrović and rumor is that the toon are trying to sign Danny Welbeck to replace him
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torreira is tiny
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second season running Arsenal gave more BPL minutes to players from their own academy than any other BPL team
http://sport.bt.com/football/arsenal-make-most-use-of-homegrown-talent-study-shows-S11364286412196
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man city were bottom 3 on the list, and CFC who have totally dominated youth football for seven years or more, were not in top 5.
arsenal used 8 players from our Academy in the BPL last season
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Ed, that sure underlines what crap the commentators were talking for Premier sports.
Mind, in their opinion, presented more as fact, those players we have brought through all stagnated under Wenger, whereas with new manager they have a good chance of kicking on.
Finally, they thought it was great that Nelson and other youngsters were getting chances under new manager… as they probably wouldn’t have got them with Wenger!!?
Apparently, they should have had more opportunities last year, and many Arsenal fans felt this.
Yep, in their world, a couple of pre-season appearances is better than ten or so senior appearances the previous year. And that’s without addressing what sort of overlap there is with fans who were hyper-critical or even abused Wenger and fans who have some patience with young players.
I hope it isn’t a sign of how freely, with no obligation to be halfway factual, commentators and pundits will trash our last/Wenger’s last decade or so, but it may be case.
I think it’ll have to be enough to know in your own mind a fair assessment of the post invincibles years.
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quote rich
“Apparently, they should have had more opportunities last year, and many Arsenal fans felt this.”
this here is exactly the problem, as we actually seen Arsenal bloggers and twatterati spout this sort of shit last season, Remember when Jayden Sancho was better getting 6 games at Dortmund than Reiss Nelson getting 13 at Arsenal.
And take a look at Newsnow any day, for any club, and there are loads of articles, even from mainstream media, quoting fans, yes often both extremes, like “love the kit” to F**k off Puma”, both mostly negative shit like “get Iwobi out of my club” and “sign Dembele”.
I would go as far as to say that these articles encourage fans to be negative, even extremely negative, as they know the more extreme they are the better chance of being quoted, you even see them brag on twitter that “Mirror used my tweet”, its their 15 minutes of fame.
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and Rich, talking of the media, some on here have suggested that the hate for Arsenal and all the negativity towards the club was Wenger related and under the new man and new regime, we would see a change. I think those saying this also suggested that the PGMOL crew fed off this and of course their dislike for AW too.
But one only has to look at the Guardian article yesterday to see that it had nothing at all to do with Wenger, they just don’t like us and will attack the club with any old bollocks. And when you consider they way the Ozil statements have been covered, you can see its a deep set stance they have on Arsenal. My God even yesterday there were still loads of articles attacking Ozil “the coward”. Arsenal bloggers are culpable in all this, they spout the same shit, their comment sections are full of the same sort of attacks on all things Arsenal, dare to call any of them out on it and either you are banned or your comment somehow disappears (happened me only as recently as Sunday, on the 7 am blog, pointed out factual mistakes and his contradictions, and low and behold, comment disappears.
Look at how Arsenal blogs and twitter guys are spouting shit about Ramsey, so much negativity, so much shit, and when challenged so little logic, so little understanding of the rules of contracts, refusal to acknowledge that Ramsey can still be happy here, and fully committed for the season ahead, even with only a year left on his contract. The one I love hearing from these idiots is “as long as they wear the kit I support them fully and unconditionally”, then in next sentence “Ramsey can fuck off if he don’t sign the contract”. They really don’t like when you point out that this is not supporting “fully”, nor is it “unconditional”, it is in fact not supporting and is very conditional. Been blocked by 3 people in recent days for pointing this out. Now I say 3 people, it could have been the same guy with 3 different accounts, as it seems this sort of whinge bag like to have multiple accounts.
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Eds
Flamini’s replacement!
Hehe
He is Coquelin’s replacement. And everyone is very excited too.
Not going to comment upon Gabriel’s replacement. I remain hopeful and optimistic though we are on strong and stable (yikes!) ground if we assume it’s not equivalent to a Sol Campbell freebie or a Per Mertesacker “panic buy” (quoting our dear hacks and blaggers there at the end).
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7am?
Isn’t he the fellow who once demanded Rosicky be sold?
*coughs*
Between esteemed and selfless blaggers like that and mind blastingly numb plundits such as the immortalised (by aunty bleeb) Phil Neville, there’s a sketch or three there for Sacha Baron Cohen. Just saying.
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Eduardo792
Did you put anything offensive in your 7am post? He has very strict rules on swearing, trolling etc, and all new posters go into moderation anyway (like here).
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7 am is a prick, as is Yankee gunner. Its not an American thing, but they are proper pricks.
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Yes, of course.
Have a nice day
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I rarely look at other blogs, but read one of the big ones the other day and it made for an odd experience.
First up was seeing how, like a flick had been switched, someone who specialised in the negative was now more or less interpreting everything positively, but the stranger bit was that the views all seemed so mediocre if not flat out wrong
‘What he [Guendouzi] has that Xhaka doesn’t is pace over 10m and bags of strength’
I’m not sure yet if he is faster than Xhaka over that distance. Maybe, but I doubt by much. Looks a very languid mover to me (though I was tentatively reassured by one little burst that he might be quicker than I first thought).
Strength though. Come on! Just by looking at their physiques (and age of course) it’s extremely unlikely he is stronger than Granit, who has never seemed short of strength anyway.
Another bit was about us clearly changing our style to play more from the back and how refreshing it was! Bet the fuck has slaughtered us any time previously we have lost goals that way.
Anyway, I expected not to like it but must have expected a higher quality of shite.
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Eduardo
Your post did get onto 7am on Sunday. First on the list for that day. It must have gone into moderation.
Not a bad idea to check these things first.😱
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Self righteous
I don’t read that blog anymore after his sneering self righteous exception ali immature and idiotic remarks about this blog when it was set up.
I believe these quotes by the cunning linguist are easily available.
With fellow supporters like these, one needs a bin ready to hand.
The Tammy Abraham back scratching appreciation society (we prefer appreciating Arsenal players like Eddie!) don’t have much credibility here.
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< Exceptionally
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“Sell Rosicky”
Not a bad idea to go and watch some of the football that one is apparently a self confessed* expert in
(*the incredibly amusing quotes are out there literally floating in the ether).
It only took Belgium like five minutes after the player came on as a sub for the belgium team to target Rozza’s favourite LB, and score a goal.
Most people in football watch players like Rosicky and learn, and appreciate. The self-declared sneering Experts? They are a different breed altogether.
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fins the flamini replacement thing is that the malcontents used to say all flamini does is point
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Good news. Smith-Rowe signed new deal.
Unless Nelson does soon, it seems 50:50 at best with him. Best bet is if he can be involved early in season and sign on back of that.
Agent seems to be same guy involved with the youngster, Musah, who reportedly is joining Juve. Guidolin, son of the ex Swans manager.
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Emile Smith-Rowe has signed a new long term contract
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Hey folks, thanks for commenting about my blog over here. I love all the positivity flowing over here at positively Arsenal.
It was 2008 when I said “sell Rosicky”. Man that was (looks at year) 10 years ago. If you remember at the time he had been out with several injuries and also had that blow up where he slagged off several Arsenal players in the press and then recanted with an apology non-apology. As an interesting side note, 2008 was when I first started writing. I was a lot less measured about my words and certainly understood a lot less about how the football business (especially the press, who whipped the Rosicky thing into a fury) works.
But yes, I was wrong to say “sell Rosicky” because if we had, I wouldn’t have had one of my favorite ever moments as an Arsenal fan: when his hair caught the light, and it looked like he caught fire, right before scoring the only goal to beat Tottenham. I have no problem admitting when I’m wrong and if you read my writing, instead of just being angry with me on this forum, you’ll find that I often apologize for saying stupid things that I regret. I also learn from my mistakes. Maybe that makes me a “prick”, I don’t know, it’s just how my personality works.
As for slagging off this blog, I think the only thing I’ve ever said is that it’s very strange that the so-called “positive” Gooners are so filled with hate toward their fellow Gooners that they literally can never forgive them (even 10 years later) for any criticism of the team. I said the same thing at the same time about the negative blogs and sure enough, they all hate me too!
It was really weird to see blogs go up which seemed dedicated to just slagging off other Gooners. Almost like a High School slam book.
I feel like most people should be given a chance to talk about their ideas in a measured way. Not to talk about the person, but the ideas. That’s what I try to do with my blog and why I have a strict spam filter.
One of my main philosophies is that the thing that’s least positive in life is sitting around talking shit about people behind their backs. Every encounter I have with George and this blog is exactly that. He does it here, on Twitter, and apparently his people do it on my blog and here.
Anyway, looking forward to a great season with the Arsenal. They were the second best home team last year and hopefully they can improve their away form (I see you have an article here saying the same). Also hoping I can take my daughter to see her first match this season. Good luck with everything and I hope to see you at the Grove.
-Tim
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Know it’s not the favourite source of many on this site, but just read a very well written tribute by Tim Stillman on Vic Ackers, I thought he was just a long serving and legendary kit man, but with due respect to the guardians of the kits, he was a bit more.
Won’t get into the rights and wrongs, as we move on, but some great servants to the club , some unsung heroes have departed this summer, Vic Ackers was one of them, wish him and his colleagues who have left the club well, hope they enjoyed some truly wonderful years at AFC
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Almost forgot, Ackers Out!
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Mandy how Phil Neville got the England manager’s job ahead of the saintly VC and other worthy contenders is perhaps not that big a mystery but no less a scandal.
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Akers was the force behind our incredibly successful women’s team. I’m sure he was ready to move on, having already stepped down from the coaching/management side a while ago, he had been training his son Paul to succeed him as kit manager for a few years now.
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Mandy he’s not a credible source because when he came to visit he didn’t have the dignity to pull the splinters out of his Arsenal, never mind taking off his shoes, left a right old mess!
Hard to be interested in what someone has to say when they can’t even answer a simple question! When their politics regarding a football club overrides their ability to discuss the actual football. You’ll find more projection going on in there then in a seven storey Vue cinema complex.
Would any of these silly shameless squeakers have said that 4th would be an achievement with the squad AW had at the start of last season (as it was most seasons…), which is what they are saying about the undeniably stronger squad now? Cunning linguists maybe, that is all they that they have shown themselves to be.
Meh.
My suggestion for people curious as to the (subtle) changes that UE may be bringing onto the pitch etc. is to tune into the Breakdown hosted by Adrian Clarke over the first month of the season. That’s what I’ll be doing! Otherwise I’ll be clueless! Certainly not wasting my time with the tripe merchants or pretending to be able to spot the kind of subtle changes myself that none of these idiots would ever discuss in regard to the old gaffer (slightly easier to spot as we knew some of the more frequent variations after the long years).
The Breakdown is a service that all Arsenal fans can enjoy and appreciate, no small thanks to two of our self righteous colleagues who got that other sneering gibberish peddler Stuart Robson the sack (I’ve had a soft spot for Ivan ever since! I won’t judge him till he runs away to Milan….hehe!).
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Clarkie has got serious. Other gigs on talkshite etc.
But he never plays for or to the mob, or for the clicks.
Definitely a favourite source for the reasons mentioned above.
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Arsenal Column
@ArsenalColumn
Is also a favourite.
Don’t always agree e.g.:
We’ve been so used to a certain *type* of build up under Wenger, that in the first two preseason matches, watching the DM drop in between the centre-backs as they split, and the CMs rotate, feels fresh when in fact, it’s the common possession style these days
12:27 pm · 27 Jul 2018
How else do we describe Elneny dropping back at HT against Chelsea last season to help the regain some control & possessions and other examples? Was AW’s 343 at times “Back three-ish”? Or just as above? Young Pep was curious but no one took him up on his offer to discuss the AW/Arsenal 343, which beat his team and then the champions to win the cup in 2017. Can’t remember too much of the 2018 league cup final though I’m not not sure any formation could’ve helped with the error that led to the first goal against the underdogs on that day.
Watching the new team try and play out is where my focus will be in the first few games, I can’t pretend that I’ll be able to follow much else. Aubamayang is a dream striker we know that already, and Miki has shown that he has some serious quality and can even play at 8 if required as he enters this phase in his career, he was missed against Atletico & barely fit for the second leg. A ‘big’ goal at Old Trafford already, there will be more from him.
There’s a new CM alongside a new gaffer and that’s where the genuine excitement comes from for most people IMO not any back slapping narratives. With Europa league group games etc we’ll get to see most of the squad play and that’ll help highlight any obvious variations in play. I’m looking forward to listening to Adrian on the breakdown during the opening phase of the season.
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full time – AFC Hornchurch 0-3, Gilmour opened the scoring, then Iliev saved a penalty to keep us ahead, John-Jules made it 2-0. Have not seen yet who got our 3rd goal.
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Ballard got the third goal
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odd transfer story today – Josh DaSilva to join Birmingham on loan for the season. this would suggest that he has not left AFC but in fact signed a new contract. The story comes from a Birmingham paper.
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a few interesting things from the U23’s game tonight,
Willock and Osei-Tutu drop down from the Tour squad.
Bielik played in central midfield when he came on
Bramall played wide left midfield
Hein, the young keeper signed for the U18’s came on too.
Team seemingly lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, suggesting that this is how first team will line up
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AFCPressWatch
@AFCPressWatch2
4h4 hours ago
AFCPressWatch Retweeted FA Spokesperson
From the start of the 2018-19 season, yellow and red cards will be issued by match officials for misconduct committed in the technical area during specific competitions: ⬇️
Premier League
FA Cup [from 1st round]
English Football League
EFL Cup
EFL Trophy
National League.
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interesting quotes from Darren Burgess, our fitness guy
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