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 
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Ozil is Captain today
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captain fantastic Mesut Ozil makes it 1-0 to the Arsenal
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Iwobi and Miki much deeper then Ozil who is up closer to Auba for this opening spell of the match.
Arsenal’s offside line non-existent at the moment. I would read less into that then our dear Narrative Experts with their outstanding track records who have concluded that AFC will be pressing high in every game this season. However so far it’s Just like last pre-season, and the pre-season before that…if AFC start the season pressing for 90 mins in every match, they won’t be ending the season like that!
Just like Klopp’s LFC in the PL!
Even Klopp’s team can’t go hell for leather every game as we saw when we were considering if they were obviously doping (I don’t think so). Not unless they gamble on early goals in every important game which as everyone can see hasn’t been the most rewarding gamble for herr Klopp over the many finals…
…if people acknowledge that two of the best goals in the WC were following beautiful through passes for France, for the goal of the tournament and Pogba’s Zidane tribute in the final, they they can accept that Deschamps biggest conservatism was not regarding “defending” but regarding how his players carried their legs through an intense 90 mins every few days – which is why he adopted a similar pressing style in his games seen at Madrid, AFC and other multiple trophy winning teams from recent seasons, (Petro Laundry City with their squad which is even more silly then Madrid’s don’t count!).
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we should have had a penalty there
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Because:
Arsenal don’t really need to be pressing them all up the pitch all the game long when you have the serious pace of Ozil and Auba on the break!!
Unai taking a leaf out of the old gaffer’s book and scoring against PSG against the run of play, they had the momentum in Arsenal’s half for a few minutes.
I love how the Narrative Experts project so much Gibberish which bears sweet FA relationship to what actually happens on the humble football pitch.
Unai’s trademark was the quick short passing out the back and not Klopp style pressing (Gegenwhatsit?), yet our dear Dreamers, those sweet Blaggers, have completely conflated the two so that in their minds eye AFC have recruited some kind of dark haired Klopp’s clone.
Which is properly funny when you think about it.
Well I’m looking forward to the new season as we can see from the teams on display and both these students of the old gaffer, managing both teams, that the Football won’t be so radically different.
and hopefully the attacks on the new AFC manager on and off the pitch will not be of the same volume and frequency, and allow the squad some basic normality. Fingers crossed.
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goalie makes a good save from iwobi after a flowing move
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Iwobi electing to shoot could have tried setting up the tap in for Auba but it wasn’t that easy a pass.
AFC simply attacking at pace. Don’t know about any pressing stuff.
Tika-Taka bang bang. Same trademark style whenever an arsenal team is playing well.
Yep. UE gets the AFC style, and the players he inherited. Completely logical to conclude that he wasn’t lying and must’ve been a true student, hence his great knowledge of the team and squad he inherited and the tough choices already made (Wilshere etc.)
Hopefully they board come through and give him the captain that he wants.
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Mustafi with a foul fifteen yards in the opposing half.
Nothing new there but I suppose that’ll be described as an example of unai’s new pressing style. Hehe.
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Ball over the top by the new French kid, Auba almost clean through, he could’ve scored!
Pressing? Kind of the opposite so far, stretching not pressing…
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My advice to everyone:
Don’t pay any attention to our blaggers and gallant podcastateers.
They are, evidentially so, full of themselves and not much else.
Certainly nothing of value if you enjoy watching the footy and then enjoy discussing with your friends what you have seen upon the football pitch.
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leno with a good save, psg got the chance a bit too easily
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Yet another raking long pass after the French kid takes the ball off the CBs.
Who does he think he is? Xhaka???!!!!!
How is all this space magically appearing behind PSG if AFC have a new high pressing style?
Finally PSG stop trying to press the Arsenal after wising up and now AFC enjoying a longer spell of possession and a little breather. However I wouldn’t call knocking the big about in deep midfield as “high presssing”.
Not so different to how AFC played against PSG last time out.
L
O
L
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another good chance for AFC
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Another curling long pass releases Miki who ghosts forward from midfield and he could’ve scored too.
Lots of half chances for PSG, AFC could have made it three with more luck in the finishing.
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HT: Arsenal 1-0 PSG
Ozil with the goal, really should be further ahead with the amount of good chances we have had.
Not seen anything revolutionary in our play, its exactly like it was under wenger, more focused on attack, lots of passing
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So what was exciting there was:
Not the pressing
But the passing out the back variations.
Against a team that was trying to press AFC.
With Sanchez starting to run around in circles towards the end of his time, Walcott on the way out, players like Chambo gone, it was harder to find other alternatives to finding Giroud (when playing last season, a role Larry does so well for club and country), therefore making it easier for opponents to mark the big lump, and that is where having a full pre-season with Auba & his teammates becomes very exciting.
Plus keeping Ozil higher as AW did with the 343 (2017 cup final a great example), and for those of us who love to see pace in the attack it looks good!
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psg make it 1-1 from a penalty
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Any live streams going?
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Lacazette scores..
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Lacazette puts us 2-1 up
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lacazette makes it 3-1, a bit of head tennis in the area and lacazette nods home
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Eddy are you watching live?
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G-p a stream
http://firstrow1uk.eu/soccer/arsenal-paris-saint-germain-frse1ehi?l=1560002682
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GP
Search ‘Reddit Soccer streams’ and you’ll find one that hopefully suits your browser/OS for the season ahead!
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Holding with a great header from 14 yards out at a corner 4-1
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Great header by Holding from the corner
4-1!
Great play to win the corner. Smith-Rowe with a beautiful pass from the left, Lacazette setting up Nelson for the shot from which he could’ve scored. Nelson takes the corner(?), which was sweetly struck and well met by Holding.
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Only a pre season game, but Wow!
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The kid at LB (?) this half can be proud of his efforts opposite A.Madrid and PSG.
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FT: Arsenal 5-1 PSG
Ozil, LAcazette (2), Holding and Nketiah with our goals, the better team for long periods, could have been more than 1 up at HT, PST drew level early in second half from a penalty, but our subs banged in four more for a comfortable win.
did not see anything new in this performance.
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Eddie!
That is a top finish!
He really looks a special talent to my untutored eye.
Thank f*ck the Arsenal coaches (last season’s vintage) know a bit more about the game then our selfless podcastateers who were salivating over the likes of Tammy Abraham, whilst slagging off the coaches/coaching etc.
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TBF Eds we didn’t see much of ESR last season in the first team so that is one difference. He’s a year older and stronger, like Nelson, like Maitland-Niles etc.
Hehe.
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And most importantly, unlike our own Experts, the kids must have learnt some wisdom over the last year too.
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https://mobile.twitter.com/ArsenalTerje/status/1023202059263324160/photo/1
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fins when I say we did not see anything new, I’m not talking about the players, as we have several new signings and more youths getting game time, I’m talking about set up, style of play, pressing game, new found defensive solidity etc, although I did see some of our players drinking from water bottles, now that is new, isn’t it.
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as for Eddie Nketiah, clubs should be battering down our door to get him on a season, or even half season loan, the lad is a natural born finisher, he has scored goals, loads of them at every level he has played at so far, from his early days at Chelsea academy, to our u16’s and up to U23, for England at schoolboy, youth and now U21, and we have seen him score for our first team too.
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Correction: AMN played at LB today after coming for the last 20 minutes.
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‘Ozil can take the responsibility of captaincy’
Rob Kelly 28 Jul 2018
Mesut Ozil made a big impact on his return to the Arsenal team as we beat Paris Saint-Germain in Singapore on Saturday.
The German playmaker scored the opening goal within 12 minutes and afterwards Unai Emery was asked where his best position is.
This is what he told the media:
on Mesut Ozil being named captain…
We are working together and giving the responsibility to the players. I think he can take the responsibility, but let’s not forget Koscielny who is recovering with us. Then we’ve got Petr Cech, who captained us in a friendly match. Aaron Ramsey also captained us in a friendly and I am maybe thinking another one or two players can take responsibility for every player in the team.
on Mesut’s best position…
We want to give him and our players the position they feel most comfortable in on the pitch. He started today at No 10 with Matteo and Mohamed behind him. The first one would go up and then find him between the lines, or sometimes Mkhitaryan. When we do have the ball, we can press with the striker and a No 10 almost like a 4-4-2 in a press. It depends because Mesut can play on the right and go inside, driving in to open up space for the right back. We want to find a space for him and the other players where they can use their qualities through good positioning. I think in the first half today we played good with quality players, but I want to improve this pressing. In the second half they were tired, but the young players gave us the pressing back and allowed us to change our positions and play with three in midfield
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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I’m not keen on that 3rd kit, even the players don’t look good in it. Looks cheap and nasty
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Joel Campbell says he has one year left on his AFC contract and that he will be going to AFC in the coming days, for them to decide what happens next, but that another loan deal is out of the question.
can only see him being sold
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I see loads of people saying Torreira, Xhaka, Monreal, Lichtsteiner and even Ozil, Iwobi and Elneny will lack fitness and match sharpness for the start of the season, really, just how unfit can a top athlete get in 3 weeks, especially when they do their own training in that time too. Again on match sharpness, how many games is needed after only 3 weeks away from playing would any of them need.
Ozil, Iwobi and Elneny will all likely have played in 3 of our preseason games, and all the rest in at lest one of our two remaining games. But again just how blunt can a top player get in 3 weeks. Why is it that during the season if a player gets a minor injury and misses 3 or 4 weeks we don’t see them left out for another few weeks and put in reserves for game time to get sharp. No they are normally brought right back in.
I see little reason why Torreira, Xhaka, Lichtsteiner, will not all be available to be in contention for selection for the match day squad for the city game, and Ozil, Iwobi and Elneny should be available for selection in the starting 11.
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reports that Roman is selling Chelsea FC to Jim Radcliffe for £2bn.
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Ramsey’s agents have replied to a picture/post of AR on instagram where Lacazette calls AR his captain, with the comment
“captain’s armband look good @aaronramsey @Arsenal”
is it a hint at things to come.
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Matteo Guendouzi, when at PSG
and now against PSG
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That air guitar on bench had me instantly thinking of this
Back of the net
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England team spirit seemingly good at the World Cup. AFC boys seem happy on tour. Beginning to wonder if Jack W was that easy to have around after all.
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Interesting, the spirit does seem pretty good. Have never heard tales of Jack affecting morale, but if he were a little grumpy after all his injuries, wouldn’t blame him!
The only dampener on squad spirit I have read about in recent years is now at Utd, and not even sure of those stories were true, even if some were, you are always going to get a level of not getting on in a group of competitive young men, or women for that matter.
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Mandy that is a much more sensible take on it and I am sure you are right. What did seem lovely yesterday was the Ozil happy face and I would love to think that he has decided that the Arsenal should be very much his place.
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shakiri played for liverpool last night, why is xhaka lichsteiner and torreira not with the team at least? arsenal seems to give longer holidays to their players than other clubs.
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the spirit in the camp during our tours have always been great. in any case, jack has missed few pre season tours while with us due to injuries. as for england? how many tournaments has jack been a part for england? walcott?
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