Hello everyone and happy new season to you all.
On this podcast we discuss the poor opening game and muse on the reasons and any possible fixes. Wealso run a rule over new signings and their impact.
It’s certainly not the start I was hoping for but what can you do?
Pedantic George.
Positively Arsenal 
Hey George. Am always very curious what angle you take in posting our podcast. Interestingly you leave the door open for improvement while I took the view that under Arteta we have gone from bad to worse prior to this and Brentford is simply confirmation. I wonder where my fellow Positivistas stand?
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Haven’t had a chance to listen yet, but I’d say there’s plenty of room for improvement. As I said the other day I wasn’t expecting much at all from the first three games, but wouldn’t be surprised to see steady progress from then on. I do think we need to find a striker though as well as the attacking midfielder that we seem to be looking for.
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Well here is the gospel according to me.
On the positive side were now out of the relegation places, like pre-season first games tell you very little about form it’s more about grinding out a result and although our next two games look daunting both teams will not play like Brentford and leave slot more space behind for Ben and Granit to find runners.
On things from the last game, firstly for the foul on the second goal at no point did Leno really try to snatch his arm away jump or even pull any attention to the officials to get the foul. Can anybody really see Big Jen’s struggling in that position the Brentford player would of been in the stands, we have to admit both on that and the first goal it was very weak keeping.
It is also difficult to complain about the second goal when I don’t think it affected the result, we created so little danger I couldn’t see us scoring anyway which has been a constant problem even during our so called good run of the early part of the year.
I also don’t believe Auba and Laca would of made any difference as the problem being creativity means even buying a striker wouldn’t help that mutch and to that ends really the player we are still missing is Mesut and the person we are missing is a Manager/coach who can see the openings and I certainly can’t see him coming back in any capacity under the current regime.
I have read in several places Pepe played well and I still can’t see it he creates very little, he rarely goes past his man on the outside (which is why most of our attacking threat came down the left) and he still daydreams when we lose the ball, in fact there is a street near where I live called Pepe’s way and it’s a cul-de-sac which says everything really.
We are still relying on ESR and Saka in the final third and although it’s very early days still only have Xhaka on midfield.
On the game against the spuds in the 87th minute we were losing and got a FK in their half and went backwards and in this game we got a FK in the 82nd minute around the half way line and still went backwards now I’m all for recycling the ball but I think there are times when we have to be slot more positive and I’m not sure this coach can do it.
One last thing I was impressed from what I had seen of Ben White until I see the stats before the game and although his passing is excellent his defensive stats are worse than all our other CBs in every area and then if you add the fact he will be playing slot further up the pitch than he was at Brighton this could mean we don’t see return on our 52 million for several seasons.
Like I say although I was extremely excited before the game and extremely disappointed afterwards we have to remember the next few games will be very different and a couple of brave performances would make the outlook on the season a lot brighter.
I think most of us on here are not confident in Mikel’s abilities so the title question needs to be asked later in the season but at this moment in time I would imagine he is quite uncomfortable.
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ian artetaball is paint by numbers football, regardless of the score we stick to the same tactics, give it out wide left to Tierney to swing in a high cross to no body. Go backways, play safe, players do what they are told. They know you are out if you do your own thing. Arteta accepts 1-0 or 2-0 defeats, 16 times under Arteta we have been behind at half time and we have lost 12 of them and drew 4. There is no charge of the lightbrigade to try and salvage the game, no its don’t risk losing 3-0 or 4-0, we don’t throw on all the forwards or attack minded players to try and get a goal, no the subs are like for like, the tactics stay the same, it remains risk averse. You mentioned Pepe, Arteta will tell you he has improved immensely, and I can only think that what he means by that is that Pepe no longer risks losing the ball by trying to beat his man or a couple of men, we all can recall how Arteta used to go mad at him everytime he lost the ball trying to take on a man, and now he was in and out of the team, but then Pepe stopped taking risks, and Arteta was delighted by his improvement. I said it last season, that was the reason Ozil was drummed out by Arteta, our Mesut done what he thought best, not the paint by numbers instructions Arteta demanded. There was an incident in the game, some tweeters slammed Xhaka for, there was a pass on to slip an attacker in but Xhaka played it out wide to Tierney to fire in a high cross that came to nothing, the tweeters all blamed Xhaka for not seeing or playing the pass, but for me Xhaka was only doing what Arteta has demanded, and all this Artetaball is counter-intuitive to the players and its why its all so slow, that split second of thinking there is a pass on to the runner but “what does Mikel want me to do here”, oh thats right play it out to Tierney, means its all slow, plodding play.
Arteta has banged on for 20 months now that we should only need that one or two good chances to win any game, that we are not looking to have 20 or 30 shots per game, he constantly says what we are doing is what he wants, but that all that needs is for it to be done a little better by more of his own signings. Constantly Arteta fans tell us that it took Klopp 4 years to get LFC to where they are now, but they ignore that from early on there was lots of signs of what Klopp football was, what he was looking for LFC to become, but if what we have seen so far under Arteta is what he wants us to be, then he can fuck right off, its crap
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some reports that Aaron Ramsdale is going to put in a transfer request to try and force through a transfer to Arsenal this week
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rumors in Barcelona media that there may be a swap deal of Aubameyang or Lacaette to Barca and Couthino to AFC, with super agent Kia working to get the deal done
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Portsmouth trying to get a loan deal done for Azeez
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Is not the style that you refer to, Eduardo, the reason why so many players are out of favour.
I have said this ad nausium, Arteta wants the players to do what he says and when he says it.
He is not interested in anyone who persists in using their own initiative. Creativity is simply not his thing.
That is why he did no use ESR until he had to and then had to keep him on although I suspect that he is tweaking the inspiration out of him,
Why would Countinho want to come here to be told by Arteta what he can and what he can’t do, unless the money is good enough for him to bite the bullet?
If the owners can’t see the mess they are making, then they are blind.
This is Emery all over again
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Can’t disagree with you jjgsol. Arteta is trying to be Pep so bad, he can’t see the damage he is causing.
3 losses and an international break later we could be looking for a replacement
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2 weeks of the transfer window left and as things stand we have our full quota of non home grown players, 17 in total, so if we sign any more non homegrown such as odegaard, we either have to get rid of one on our list, or end up like last season, paying someone we can not give game time to.
Leno
Runarsson
Tierney
Gabriel
Kolasinac
Cedric
Tavares
Mari
Xhaka
Partey
Sambi
Elneny
Torreira
Lacazette
Willian
Aubameyang
Pepe
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just seen the breakdown and one stat from it, Xhaka played the ball to Tierney 25 times v Brentford
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reports that the Arsenal game v Brentford was nearly called off due to a Covid scare in the Arsenal camp, all players and staff had to have covid tests on the day
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Arsenal U23’s lost their opening league game of the season tonight away to West Ham, 6-1, its a good job Steve Bould is no longer holding them back
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Yeah, the new bloke has made an instant impact on the U-23. Just need to get rid of all the dead wood and get his own players in
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A season after Auba essentially downed tools, sometime around about the premier league squad announcement last season we finally get confirmation he too is desperate to get off the K’s sinking ship. And who can blame him? For those paying attention to the players on the pitch this is not surprise he probably put in the request to leave after yet again being asked to play wide as a slowing veteran it appears the genius Arteta has forgotten how his own coaches managed his slowing limbs. The idiot.
Will we ever see a greater example of stupidity and hari-kari as that witnessed this time last season when a cup winning squad was blown up, the cup winning keeper sold, Niles and others to never play again save when perhaps cold and not ready as seen with Nelson, and the best player in the squad treated in a manner that disenfranchised the rest of the squad? Hard to better that I think.
That none of the billy big blaggers could point to the idiotic enormity of the calls being made at the club over the last period is a very strong indication that: they know sweet FA about the footy.
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Eduardo, Nuno Tavares is still considered U-21 till the new year. Even with that we are at 17 non-home grown players as you omitted Bellerin in your list.
I’d be really surprised if at least 3 do not leave though..(Kolasinac, Torreira,+1)
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Interesting how Xhaka’s new contract the media claimed would be till 2025 is but a 1-year extension. Anything and everything to beat the Arsenal with.
The downgrading of VAR empowers the PGMOL to keep it business as usual.
With our owner/management team not looking up to the standard required for battle.
It doesn’t bode well for the Arsenal.
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Hector is home grown
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Yes he is Ian, thanks, I forgot Hector is home grown.
We’re down to 16 non-home grown players then
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Aman I don’t think Tavares is U21, it don’t change half way through the season its got to do with age at start of the season, he is either U21 for the full season or he is not, it don’t change during the season.
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Aman the Xhaka contract extension of one year brings him to 2024, and there is said to be an extra one year clause in it too, which means he could be extended to 2025
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So its being reported that Arsenal have had a breakthrough on both the Odegaard and Ramsdale signings. Both Real Madrid and Sheffield Utd are said to have lowered their asking prices
All I will say is if we sign Ramsdale then no one can ever doubt his bravery, as he has been written off as not Arsenal level, in fact many have him down as totally hopeless, so it won’t matter how well he plays, he has been judged and found not up to it already.
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seemingly AFC have added scout Toni Lima to our staff, he is credited with bringing Neymar and Coutinho to Europe. He will be based in Spain
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Eduardo, from my understanding, a player is considered U21 if he’s 20 or below at the start of the calendar year. This is why teams submit a 25-man squad list to the EPL & to UEFA (A & B lists actually) after each transfer window closes.
https://www.premierleague.com/news/102383
https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/news/0231-0e94d9d8129d-64371a29cafe-1000–uefa-champions-league-squads-how-it-works/
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I’m pleased to hear we have signed Ødergaard and that he is now a proper Gunner, rather than an on-loan Madrista. I sense it will please a few of our young guns as well.
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Nothing official on officia l site yet
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Nothing official yet but Sky are reporting both MO and Ramsdale have been agreed. Just personal terms and medicals by midday on Friday for them to be registered for chelski
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What is up with Maitland Niles? Such a promising player12 months ago…So are we just keeping Maitland-Niles on the books cuz he is homegrown? The market outside of the EPL has shrunk because those leagues aren’t afloat in TV contract monies. We won’t get a decent transfer fee for him, Play Maitland-Niles and Bellerin at RB because they represent our best hope at the moment. They have value if they play and help us win. Surely disgruntled Bellerin and Ainsley are better than a happy Soares and Chambers
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Ian: I know you took exception to my comments aobut Leno (I was downplaying him a bit) but what’s your opnion on Ramsdale? He looks a real prospect to me and I wonder if the plan is to now sell Leno sometime in the next 12 months and go with
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….Ramsdale.
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Aaron Ramsdale is just 23, and has just completed 2 seasons in the EPL, both seasons he was part of a relegation team, he certainly has lots of improving to do, but here are a few former Arsenal title winning keepers who had some improvement to do at the age of 23
David Seaman at the age of 23 had just transferred from Birmingham City to QPR after one season in the top division
John Lukic at the age of 23 was in his first season at AFC after signing from second division Leeds, he played 4 games for us in the first season
Bob Wilson at the age of 23 was very much our reserve keeper and indeed it would be 4 more seasons before he became first choice for us
Jens Lehmann at the age of 23 had one season of top flight football behind him in Germany and only played 8 league games the next season
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Gurjit
@GurjitAFC
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46m
Sheffield United manager Slavisa Jokanovic on Ramsdale: “The deal is not complete but it’s agreed between the clubs. I believe the agreement is close to being done but it can be soon”
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New post is up
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I like Ramsdale. I don’t like the idea we’re paying 24 million for him while Aouar and Bissouma are still available..but I get the logic.
He ticks all the right boxes except maybe his footwork, which we’ll confirm pretty soon.
1 or 2 more to go (CM priority) and we’re good to go. I hope it’s Houssem Aouar.
If he (or Bissouma) ends up at Spurs, it would hurt like hell. RB can wait. We need to secure our CM BEFORE Levy yields to Etihad’s 142 million.
CARMON Arsenal!
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Kolasinac
Torreira
Willian
Runarsson
Nketiah
Bellerin
Nelson
Maitland-Niles
4 homegrown, 4 non-homegrown.
If we could only ship out 5, which 3 would you keep?
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