A desperately disappointing result, especially given how well we played in the first half. In that half we were very compact , energetic and aggressive in the tackle and pressing. The goal though came from a set piece rather than any good bit of creative play. However, we were value for the first half lead.
Ozil and Torreira had done very well and Aubameyang had put in a real shift. But the warning signs were there to be seen in the last 15 minutes when Chelea grew into the game.
The second half was a totally different kettle of fish. Chelsea were totally dominant although we seemed to be containing them. Then Leno decided to give them a helping hand by completely missing a ball in from a free kick. A free kick needlessly given away by Lacazette, who all in all had another disappointing game. If Lacazette is not careful he will be scapegoat in chief as soon as Xhaka sprints out the door, How we missed Xhaka today, I might add, his understudy, Guendouzi, had a poor game as he seemed the only player not to understand the team shape.
Talking about Matteo, the winning goal came when he did his normal poor attempt to win an aerial ball, and nodded it to a Chelsea player , setting them off on a breakaway.
So as disappointing as it was, we have to accept that we were not good enough in the second half. I think a draw would have been a fair result, but who said football was fair?
If Xhaka has indeed decided he has had enough of us, we desperately need a CM to fill the gap, as there is no one near his level on the roster capable of stepping up.
Have a nice new year and don’t fret too much, Mikel has this, it will come, sooner or later
Positively Arsenal 
Totally disagree with the they were good enough for a draw with kante escaping a red in the first half and jourgino in the second it was the ref who made the biggest impact on this game. Some of his calls or miscalls were unbelievable and in tight games a ref who favours one side or is negligent make a massive difference.
Having said that when jourgino came on we never reacted to the substitution or the tactical change. I thought we may change at halftime or at least just after. They had total control of the second half and although they weren’t creating many chances they were making us sweat and when your under sustained pressure you’re more likely to make mistakes. That was proved when Laca first tried to take on the player instead of holding the ball up and then let jourgino buy a foul of him in a dangerous position. Leno, who has been better on crosses lately, had a mare.
After that we were too impatient and totally lost our shape and discipline.
However we should of won the game and there were still many positives.
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Ian , Guendouzi would have been off before either of those 2.
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Yes, a very bad year, some of it self inflicted, some of it inflicted by other factors, as we saw today.
And , for a cheery thought, suspect it may get worse before it gets better.
Perhaps some karma with the way aspects of the club has been run during the Wenger transition and beyond, and,oh for Ramsey today.
We certainly deserved something today, played really well in the first, a mixture of being knackered, losing our best defender, naive, short on replacements, poor in some situations, and robbed.
We also lack luck, looks like another in a long line of costly knee and other injuries from today, looks like we are again top of the injury league, as well as, inexplicably, top of the yellow card league?
From my view in the North Bank, the ref gave us nothing, did all he could to tilt things in the second half. Exactly the same as with the handful of games I have seen this season, our players get kicked, pick up a mass of bookings, and the opponents are allowed persistent fouling, even those already booked, as we saw today. Jorginho should have seen red, Kante and Rudgier can also thank the PGMOL.
Just compare and contrast the refereeing we get with that of LiVARpool, who by all accounts were bestowed with the PGMOL favours again today, as were Spurs, again, yesterday. Surely the officiating of Liverpool must be reaching a level that goes beyond suspicious and into embarrassing? Just as well they dominate the media as well as the league, or some might be asking questions.
The future, agree, Mikel will sort it, but suspect a little spell in or very near the relegation places while he goes to work. I am sure we will get another fair impartial ref against Utd, and away to Palace.
Perhaps some good may come of us being in this until recently unthinkable situation, maybe the owners will be a little more careful on who they let loose on one of their prize assets, and how much power individuals are given, at least one senior exec should be looking over his shoulders all things being equal and were there to be any consequences for the dire situation Arteta has inherited.
Green shoots today, but we all know what winter frosts and adverse conditions can do to green shoots until they become stronger. Arteta has his work cut out
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George is absolutely right. Guendouzi should have been off in the 1st half for that ridiculous grab on Abraham on the edge of the penalty area.
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I’m absolutely livid! We could and should have won that game easily. First half it was like watching Arsenal of a few years ago and cheatski’s only response was to pull back our players every time we threatened to counter-attack. How we ended up with more cards for fewer fouls would be a mystery if I hadn’t seen it too many times before. Some might call it incompetence, I would say blatant bias. I’m not sure when we will ever get a fair and balanced referee in this league! Still, we should have made our superiority tell by scoring more when we had the opportunities. Maybe it’s youth and inexperience making the wrong decisions at the wrong times or maybe the confidence and self-belief is still not there, but I cannot understand how we go from a position of strength to retreating back into our shells and allowing cheatski to take the initiative in the second half. Sadly you could see that first goal coming a mile off and then the next one…
As disappointed as I am with the result, I was certainly glad to see a bit more effort from the players. They just need to find the formula to keep it going for more than 45 minutes a game!
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Should say absolutely gripped by match. Hugely tense. Suppose it has to be a positive to feel so utterly drawn in to action again. Though, obviously, there’s a serious potential cost to it.
Ah, can’t explain it, and given end result feels bit more ‘in theory’ than genuine emotion, but I suppose it provided the sort of intense drama and action, even if end result sucked, that it’s not too easy to find in life.
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Arteta is a brilliant man and a great coach. But with a chronic injury list and the full might of the Riley boys against him I cant see this working out well. What Mandy says is true and terrifying.
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Seems Chelsea broke this seasons EPL foul record, with 13 fouls in the first half, yet we finished with more yellows than they did.
Would imagine City, Brighton and Southampton came very close to these foul figures when playing us.
Teams know they can get away with it at the Emirates, let alone when we play away
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I just want that hint of being in relegation difficulty- ie within less than 10 points- asap. From there, I’m pretty much ok with season being about Arteta getting to work, more good opportunities for youngsters, things being set for better next season and beyond.
Unfortunately, can easily see it being a while until we get enough points on board to rule out any sort of threat of it. That threat would in turn create harder atmosphere etc, so a bit of a race against time. Dread to think what pgmol would do if we are anywhere near zone going into final ten game stretch. Think they and English football as whole would love the spectacle.
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Bloody hate that pgmol can do that to me, ie that they interfere with the hope I am feeling since Arteta’s appointment and with positives of first two performances. Hurts my soul the obstacles those bums represent to us, and has become clear that the one thing worse than them fucking with us when we are in good or reasonable top four contention state of being is when we are properly down, and need results, momentum, confidence.
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Mandy, it’s alright. For Wednesday’s home game against Man Utd he’s gone with home ref, Manchester’s Kavanagh. He was, pretty sure, guy in VAR booth during trials who overuled Atkinson and rescinded legitimate red to Utd player during trials.
I’m from Swansea and the idea of using ref from Swansea (if there’s ever been one!) for a Swansea fixture in prem is pretty laughable. So why’s it different for Manchester or Liverpool? Size of City, fact there’s more than one big club? Truth of it is, there’s not that much difference in likelihood they grew up with affection for club, or are affected, consciously or unconsciously, by bias, and their history of living within a place and its people.
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Kavanagh! ….lovely!
Maybe one day, Riley will have some sort of episode, and appoint a London ref, and there will be a ref from the Holloway Rd, but with our luck, he will be a Spud
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Guess it is pretty clear someone made a massive mistake in keeping Emery on for so long, ultimately against all logic, especially for those with inside knowledge as we survey his wreckage, and read between Artetas lines.
This club is a precious thing, neglect it, or even fail to nurture it, this season shows the fruits, I just hope the powers that be learn from this season.
That said, I ave high hopes for Arteta, so credit where it’s due for those who ought him in, clearly a very intelligent football man, with a clear vision by the sound.
Always got the impression Emery owed the club for doing him a favour, and that defined his tenure , and he willingly went along with anything asked of him, not that he wasn’t capable of his own disasters either.
But with Arteta, he didn’t need Arsenal, but bravely took on the huge challenge, and mid season, for a fraction of what the likes of Jose and Ancelotti earn. Those running the club owe Arteta to some degree, hopefully that gives him more leverage with the execs.
We don’t know if it was Stan , Raul, someone else or a combination that fought to keep Emery as long as possible, but whoever it was did damage.
Just wonder if Rauls wings have been clipped a little?
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Sounds like Arteta fearing the worst for the excellent Callum Chambers.
What a loss he will be if it is, as I am guessing an ACL or similar, always fear the worst on Arsenal injuries.
If it is that, wonder if 3 such injuries to key players in around a year will result in them at least taking a look at playing and training surfaces? Don’t have the stats, but seems to me we get more serious knee injuries than most
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The fact that guendouzi was preferred to torreira under emery was a crime. He and laca should have been subbed rather than ozil and nelson. Every sub we made made us weaker while Chelsea’s made them stronger. We should have been 2-0 ahead in the first half had laca scored when he was free in their box.
l was not surprised that Leno caused us the match. He almost did earlier with his usually poor distribution. I said it last time that pepe didn’t do anything to convince Mikel that he should be starting, again when he was brought on, he left AMN exposed. The earlier we cut our loss on him the better. For me nelson should be starting ahead on him till we buy someone else or have micki back.the good thing is the team is taking shape. Auba, martineli, mesut, torreira, Niles, Saka and Luis. Nelson too. One good center defender and a central midfielder and hopefully keep granit. If xhaka leaves, then we should be getting ndidi to partner torreira. That will free ozil to do the damage. ATM only Lucas does all the marking.
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Layksite, emery didn’t want Torriera, he wanted some strapping 6ft 2 athlete like Nzonzi or whoever.
Think Emery was a little heightist
Subs or no subs, if this appalling excuse for a referee had done his job, we would have won, and if our keeper hadn’t made a very uncharacteristic howler, we would have also at least not lost. Losing our best defender didn’t help either, how many more defenders will we lose?
What did please me yesterday, from what I could see and hear,the fans in the stadium backed them 100%. This needs to continue as we will inevitably move closer to a relegation battle before what I at least envisage, a gradual improvement as the buds of spring awaken.
Sorry for using the R word, but that scenario is unthinkable in so many levels, not least financially with our overheads . The fans ,players staff must bind together to see off this threat, because let’s face it, those running the PGMOL clearly want to cause this club as much trouble as possible
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I agree about the fans Mandy, they were much improved yesterday. I was worried they might boo the players off at full-time, but thankfully they didn’t. That’s a step in the right direction.
I assume Guendouzi played because we are down to the bare bones in midfield, but he is a liability at times. He shows promise, but he needs to calm down and to my mind should be used more sparingly. Leno gives me kittens every time he has the ball in his area. He is too slow to release it and when he does, he puts our defenders into a risky position or punts it upfield to the opposition. Lacazette needs a goal as he is in a bit of a slump, which may be contributing to him snatching at the chances he gets or making the wrong decision. He tends to hold onto the ball too long at times and thinks he can muscle his way out of every situation. Sometimes you have to just pass the ball and move. I thought Torriera played very well yesterday – he seems to have taken Arteta’s words about ‘energy’ to heart! It was also pleasing to see Aubameyang more involved overall. He was also playing with a lot more ‘energy’ too!
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Just hope the fans keep it up.
Forgot to mention one more, thing that went against us, Mustafi was doing ok, but well into the second half, had what looked to me like a clash of heads with Rudiger? – stand to be corrected , as haven’t seen what caused that stoppage or tv footage
Both players were down for ages, the latter was wearing a head bandage when he resurfaced.
But Mustafi is a player, low on confidence, who we are told the club has wanted out the last few windows, who came on for the superb Chambers, and who had to finish the game after what looked like a nasty head collision. Hoping they didn’t keep him on if concussed, but wouldn’t be surprised if he was still a little groggy when Chelsea scored their goals, one of which he seems universally blamed for, including by that unbiased font of football knowledge, Piers Morgan
Too many things seemed to go against us to win that game, let alone 7 injuries to first teamers. Just hoping it will not always be that way for the rest of the season, tho they will do well to recover for the game against Utd/PGMOL this week. But the players gave it a good go against Chelsea and the fans seemed to appreciate that
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Dermot Gallagher on Sky today confirms Pawson made a mistake, yet another costly ref mistake for us, in not sending Jorginho off, he didn’t mention the foul on Torriera as he scored.
Pawson needs to be given time out of the schedule to read up on the laws of the game, and only return once he proves he is versed on them. He might also write the Oxford English Dictionary definition of impartiality 500 times so it sinks in
Hopefully, Wenger is beavering away somewhere with the aim of bringing refereeing into account, especially Riley and his bunch who now seem to get away with flouting international protocols, but as long as they don’t upset the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Utd, they get away with it.
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While I’ll agree Matteo was stupid firstly bar checked it and deemed the shirt tug ( not a pull back so different offence) wasn’t a pen. If it was a pen under the double jeopardy rule he couldn’t of been sent off anyway. Also the kante incident was before that incident so they would already have been down to 10 men.
Also we have to look at it in context of the gane. The kante incident was a straight red While the Matteo incident like I say checked by var, not double jeopardy and at a time when the ref was being lenient. Whereas the jourgino incident happened after there had been several bookings for the same offence not least jourgino himself. If a booking is supposed to be a warning then two incidents for the same thing has to mean a sending off. This game was reffed in a way that allowed lots of fouls and stopped free flowing football. While I believe we made mistakes I believe the ref changed the game several times.
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ian you are wrong that Guen couldnt have been sent off if penalty had been given, the double jeopardy only means he would not get a straight red, he would still have been booked, and it would have been his second yellow, as he picked up needlessly earlier in the game
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Gregor MacGregor
@GeeMacGee
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3h
We understand that Eddie Nketiah will be recalled from #LUFC by #Arsenal in the next 48 hours. #BristolCity lead the chase for his signature, but competition from Brentford, Sheffield Wednesday and another Championship side. Very good chance the Robins will land the forward.
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Poor Mustafi is an easy target whether he is at fault or not, whereas Leno palming the ball to a cheatski player for the assist will get a pass.
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also passenal did you see Guendouzi on that winner, it was like watching Denilson after his back injury, I was waiting for the ref to run past him, the lad was more interested in waving his arms about to blame others than to actually get back and help out. Imagine if Xhaka was to do that, it would break the internet
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In my opinion Guendouzi’s first yellow should not have been a yellow since the Chelsea left back committed the same foul minutes earlier and was not booked.
He is not a quick player and was taken out by the pass to the Chelsea forward. Mustafi should have challenged or delayed the forward so that the likes of Guendouzi and Torreira could get back. It’s probably what Guendouzi was trying to tell Mustafi anyways.
He is learning, but I like that is doesn’t hide and is always an option for a pass. He plays some good forward passes too though mainly seems to focus on keeping the game ticking. Ramsey used to have similar positional issues without the speed to cover him when he first started and look how he turned out. Guendouzi is a good player and will be really good very soon.
It’s nice that he is being eased into it by Arteta rather than paying every game like he was under Emery.
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The double jeopardy point was a small one in a mountain of points the main thread is no one can try a use the Guendozi incident to justify the officiating for the rest of the match
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I do believe had the officiating been correct and just chelski wouldn’t of been able to take control however as it was we did make mistakes.
I think we can all agree we were in control until chelskis first sub. The last ten minutes of the first half we did not have control of the ball and I thought we might see a change at the break. I would imagine there were slight adjustments at halftime and the players must of been talked to about the change in the chelski set up.
After 10 minutes of the restart it was clear our adjustments weren’t working and jourgino was running the game, we needed a change. I thought Joe might come on to sit on jourgino and stop the flow of movement through him. This would of allowed Mezut to pick up the ball slightly deeper and once again be more influential on the game.
I understand because of our injuries the bench didn’t provide to many options especially with Callum, who is a good distributer of the ball, going off.
Mikel suggested afterwards that we are not at the level where we can keep high intensity up for the majority of the 90 minutes. With that being said even more reason for the two subs we had to be made early. When the opposition has all the possession the pressure begins to grow and with pressure and tiredness mistakes are more likely to happen and so it proved with three or four mistakes leading to the first goal.
Even before that we were afraid to bring the ball down and play or pass it out in tight situations this meant we had less possession and the cycle started again.
All of this would have been elieviated had jourgino been sent off.
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Just saw on twitter someone saying they’ve heard ACL for Chambers. From off, I’ve been fearing that’s very likely. Absolutely gutting if correct. We’ll prob hear today as it’s normally 2/3 days later we hear for them.
Unbelievably cruel for him, having shown such persistence and with him now on verge, about 6 seasons after joining, of truly cementing his place. A serious loss for us as well.
Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks. Bollocks
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By way, and not that it’ll help any, is it correct Abraham gave him a little shove while he was in air?
For once, I didn’t look at replay, as couldn’t face it if looked bad.
Heard someone say that’s what happened and if so, despite all widespread questioning of training techniques, playing surface etc, that’d be all 3 bad knee injuries coming after opponents have made sneaky contact.
Holding was clear, but even with Bellerin there was a sneaky uneccesary little clip from Loftus-Cheek which disrupted balance and led to him putting his foot down where he otherwise wouldn’t, ie I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t have happened without that clip.
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Always fear the very worst with Arsenal injuries, but we shall see.
If so, that’s horrible, but three cruciates in a year of thereabouts, perhaps they should have another look at surfaces, or whatever, our players seem to get a hell of a lot of these type of injuries.
But stating the obvious, I am sure very clever people are analysing such things
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It means the rule holding that, despite there being so many foreign players in league, well over 90% of the time one of ours is injured after contact it’s a Brit player doing it.
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the indo is reporting that Arsenal and Hertha Berlin have an agreement in principle for the loan of Granit Xhaka with a view to a permanent £25M transfer in the summer. That it just needs for Arteta to agree, and he will only agree to it if he is sure AFC can bring in a replacement quickly. Rabiot of Juventus is said to be the wanted replacement
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FFS if true, as much as I respect his wishes, and understand his reasons, losing Xhaka is the very last thing we need at this stage.
A few people, in the club, or recently left the club, and on the terraces have a lot to answer for over Xhakas predicament, a very decent player, and unlike Rabiot, knows this league, and the cheating of the PGMOL
So , again, if true, another (ex) captain leaves us , with reports our current captain will be gone either Jan or more likely this summer it is possible come June, the club will have lost, what, six captains in a year, and done their level best to force another out. A frikin mess. Good luck Mikel, just hope he is the man, and coach I believe he is.
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Looks like Juventus are going to sign another big money central midfielder.
Swedish youngster for 20 + mill, joining Pjanic, Khedeira, Matuidi, Bentacur, Can, Rabiot and Ramsey for what’ll either be two or three slots in centre midfield.
I just really hope Aaron has a good 2nd half of season fitness wise, as if can’t establish himself this year will prob only get harder, especially if they keep on bloody buying centre mids.
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Unless we can right a wrong and get Rambo back, on loan/ subsidised wages….ok not being realistic, but one can but dream
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Rabiot should not be a xhaka replacement. Apart from torreira, we don’t have any experienced midfielders. Every top clubs around us have nothing less than 3 established midfielders. For us that should be the minimum. Rabiot should he join will be an upgrade on guen but a downgrade on xhaka for sure if he replaces him. Guen and rabiot are similar in playing style but rabiot is stronger and quicker. But if arsenal are serious about competing in the top six, we need 4 established midfielders alongside our youngsters like guen and willock. Ndidi is my choice to partner torreira so that ozil can be. Free
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Another rumour today is that Pool might be willing to pay 64 million release clause for Sevilla centre back!
In unlikely event true, it would mean paying that for a player who went for something like 14 million, from Nantes, just this summer. Supposing also that player is actually good enough to justify it : (a) oh oh, and (b) feels like that’s type of signing- getting a player just before they explode- we just haven’t been able to nail for years now.
Many of the big ones, certainly Koulibaly and Van Dijk, there was that window where they were very gettable.
Would also mean Mr Monchi, back there now, has well and truly done it again. Not much doubt now, if ever was, that he not Emery was the bigger talent at Sevilla.
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layksite
Leicester are in a superbly strong bargaining position now. Can’t see any fee mid-season would tempt them and even in Summer they would fight with all they have, and only Maguire type fee, and player doing his bit to make it happen, could see move materialise.
He’s another, like mentioned in post above, in category we probably need to identify at the stage before, i.e when moved to Leicester from Belgium.
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Midfield use to be our area of strength in the past. In fact we use to have too many of them. Even when we were into project youth, we do have more than enough. In the last season of Wenger, we had santi coq granit Ramsey and elneny alongside the young players. We use to have cesc, Gilberto flamini diaby rosicky hleb alongside youngsters like denilson song Ramsey and jack. What really has happened to arsenal?
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What really has happened to Arsenal….now there’s a question, a book, a film, an executive case study on how to completely screw something up. How to turn a giant into a relegation candidate in just over a season.
Sadly, a complete lack of planning for Wenger leaving, an experienced , decorated last minute replacement , but with communication issues, who wanted certain types of players, athletic press monsters, was prepared to sacrifice our best to get them.
But ultimately wasn’t given these players, and tried to develop some sort of hybrid “style “with who he had, somewhere between his own style, that of Moyes, and Allardyce without the defensive capability, but ultimately gave up, and the whole project descended to a mass of confusion, with those running things way to slow to act for a number of very poor reasons. An ego driven failed quest for the Europa league , sacrificing a top four in the league place did not help, but we now hear some (Raul) still wanted to give him a new deal in the summer. I am sure that knowledge did real wonders players morale.
My biggest fear is that though Arteta will put us on the right track, a jealous Raul will eventually meddle (as with Sven maybe) with disasterous consequences. I would imagine Arteta has made a few non negotiable demands, with Raul transfers probably off limits, we shall see how that one goes.
On that cheery note, Happy New Year!
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Jeez Mandy, thought I was the one for fretting and gloomy fears!
Anyway, Happy New Year. Lets all hope it’s a better one for Arsenal and a good one for this motley crew of positives!
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photo’s from today’s training session show Xhaka was there, as was Martinelli and Ceballos, a worry is that Holding was shown to be in the gym and not out with the main training group. A few youths once again in the main group, Medley, Smith, Tormey, Smith-Rowe
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Cottrell and Clarke train with Arsenal first-team ahead of Manchester United clash
by jeorge bird
A host of youngsters were involved in first-team training ahead of the game against Manchester United, with Ben Cottrell and Harry Clarke amongst them.
Midfielder Cottrell has become increasingly involved at U23 level this season, while centre-back Clarke has also impressed.
They were joined in the session by Tyreece John-Jules (who was on the bench against Chelsea), Folarin Balogun, Robbie Burton, Tolaji Bola, James Olayinka, Matt Smith, Nathan Tormey and Zech Medley.
With regards to first-team players, Granit Xhaka, Gabriel Martinelli and Sokratis are all back in training.
However, Hector Bellerin, Sead Kolasinac and Calum Chambers are still out.
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Some good news there. We need martineli back in the team and auba in the center forward. Laca should be benched for now. Xhaka whether he goes or stay should start and socratis too until holding is fit. I will start Martinez although I know that won’t happen.
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JB
™️
@gunnerpunner
·
1h
Our productive summer 2019 window after 19 league games:
Pepe (£72m) – 10 starts
Tierney (£25m) – 4 starts
Luiz (£8m) – 17 starts
Martinelli (£7m) – 3 starts
Ceballos (loan) – 7 starts
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latest transfer rumor is that Arsenal have had scouts at the last six Rangers game to watch midfielder Glen Kamara, that name might be familiar to many of you as the 24 year old Finland international only left AFC in 2017, he joined Rangers from Dundee last January.
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Granit Xhaka instagram message today to his followers
“I want to wish you and your families all the very best for 2020,” he wrote on Instagram. “For us, we will always look back on 2019 as an amazing year – the year our beautiful daughter was born.
“On the football side, there have been ups and downs – now it’s all about giving everything to make sure the next year is a special one for us all.”
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Kamara’s one that hints at limitations of loans. Went out twice I think while with us to modest clubs and barely got a game. Goes to Dundee on permanent , gets in team pretty quickly and bar a few plateau’s been on the rise ever since.
With loans they seem to just take quick look at you- game or two early on- and if not convinced you’re better option that what they have, including own youth options, often that’s that. Totally different story, as younger player, when club owns outright.
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Best wishes to one and all for 2020 and the coming decade. I’ve had a word with Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyant , and she tells me that come May we will have finished a comfortable 5th in the League, won the FA Cup and secured Champions League football courtesy of a thrilling victory in the Europa League. Well played Mikel and all who sail under George’s positive banner.
And God bless all of us here, and all those contributor’s who for all sorts of reasons are not so obviously present right now but who I know are still with us in spirit.
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New post is up
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