Saturday the 23rd of August sees game number two of the 2025/6 season for the Arsenal and our first home game at the Emirates will be against newly promoted Leeds Utd, at 5.30pm UK time.
Old timey rivals of ours from the 1970s and the 1990s, with a rich historical pedigree, we are sure will be excited to make the journey south in hope of another PL victory as they try to get a foothold in the PL.
Leeds beat Everton in their first game, and were awarded a controversial penalty. They have a strong fan base and their team knows about ball control and had 63% of it against the Toffee’s. Our friends at Statto HQ(at the time of writing) have given the Arsenal a 74.7% chance of winning and Leeds have 9.5%.
Mills.
Well if it isn’t all fun and games this week? We got the horrible news that our new beefed up Havertz was out for the season, and now the word is that he will only be out for a few weeks. If ever “Expect the worst and hope for the best” has worked in our favour, this is it. I think we paid £65m for him to replace Xhaka, but that was horrible, so we moved him to CF when Jesus broke down, and it has to be said, there was some success. It worked better than expected, and he certainly brings something to that position. So even although we have a shiny new CF, it would have been a blow to lose the lad for an extended period.
It would appear that the danger of Havertz having a long team injury , caused us to revive our interest in Eze. Not only revive it, but steal him from right under the chicken’s nose. At 27, he is at his peek, can play from the left or the middle, he’s a very good player and raises the high water mark of the squad. His willingness to run with the ball, shoot on sight and pass with risk in the final third, is something we have been woefully short of. I for one am excited about this signing. Well played Arsenal.
Arteta has been backed once again with an absolute fortune, and to be fair, I think the squad is complete. Of course professional moaners will find something to grumble about, but I think we couldn’t realistically asked for much more. I’m not a big fan of Arteta’s vision of how football should be played, but he’s the boss and the club has given him the opportunity to put his ideas into action, and that’s a good thing. No excuses, as they say.
Unless someone is sold that detracts from the strength of the squad, we’re good to go. Let’s hope this is the year and these are the players to go all the way. I think we have a chance. Our defence is top class and our forward line looks much more dynamic and threatening, my only worry is the midfield, but if Martin plays at his best and Rice can better assimilate to the 8 position, it could be good enough.
Right friends, that’s it for our first edition of the new formula for the blog. Let me know how you feel and give any ideas about how to make it better. As ever, if any of you wish to write an article, either regularly, semi-regularly or as a one off, just raise a hand.
Blackburn George.
Positively Arsenal 
well I’m not sure about the squad being complete, yes for the first time in a long time, maybe ever, we have currently 25 senior players to fill up our 25 man EPL squad, and 3 or 4 quality u21’s to bolster it too, but just two things,
I hope Kiwior is not sold this summer either, as that too would leave us thin in back up players. Lets hope we do not handicap ourselves this season, when we are so close to having that full squad of quality players. An interesting 10 days or so of the window awaits. All will be revealed, and some of us will not be satisfied no matter what deals are done. But that’s life.
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Eze is not in the Crystal Palace squad for their european game this evening, Arsenal asked for him to not be included as his transfer nears completion.
If Arsenal can get his transfer completed by noon tomorrow he can be included in our squad for Leeds Utd on Saturday
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“My only worry is the midfield”
i think you are becoming a professional moaner otherwise balanced article
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Arsenal U21’s are currently away to nottingham forest U21’s, and the game is live on Arsenal.com
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BILD claim that Kai Havertz has problems with cartilage and loose bodies in his knee. Havertz will now undergo 2 weeks of conservative therapy and injections. However, if this is not successful, surgery on the knee will be unavoidable
sounds like they are trying cortisone injections
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forest take the lead
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2-0 to forest after a woeful give away on edge of the area its a simple finish for forest.
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HT: Nottingham Forest U21’s 2-0 Arsenal U21’s
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Sagoe Jr pulls one back, a few minutes after he was on the end of a nasty challenge that went unbooked.
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ferdinand makes it 2-2 with about 4 minutes left
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FT: 2-2
good comeback by the lads
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COYG.
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Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori, Zubimendi, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Madueke, Gyokeres.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Lewis-Skelly, Mosquera, Kiwior, Merino, Nwaneri, Dowman, Martinelli, Trossard
15 year old Max Dowman among the subs, Madueke makes his full debut for Arsenal
Eze is at the game, and will be presented to the fans before kick off
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Arsenal Women lost 4-3 to spurs women in a friendly today
Arsenal U18’s won 3-2 at home to Southampton U18’s, O’Neill x2 and Hashi with our goals
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Players not in the first team squad today: Zinchenko Vieira Nelson Lokonga White (injured) Jesus (injured) Norgaard (injured) Havertz (injured)
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Eze has chosen the No.10 shirt
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Timberrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 1-0 to the Arsenal, Timber heads home at a corner
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Nwaneri on for the injured Odegaard, who goes off with a shoulder injury on his 200th game for Arsenal
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Sakaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa drives it home to make it 2-0 to the Arsenal
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HT: Arsenal 2-0 Leeds Utd
Timber and Saka with the goals.
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https://x.com/i/status/1959304641692275046
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3-0 to the Arsenal, a first Gooners goal by Gyokeres
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Saka down injured, could Dowman make his debut
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not Dowman, its Trossard on for Saka
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https://x.com/i/status/1959310265561874543
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4-0 to the arsenal, and its Timber with his second goal of the game.
the Saka injury seems to be his hamstring, which could be very bad news as it was his hamstring that he had an operation on last season
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Max Dowman comes on for his first team debut
MLS and Musquera on too
Off are Madueke, Calafiori and Timber
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https://x.com/i/status/1959312829619544204
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https://x.com/i/status/1959313773891850269
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Max Dowman wins a penalty for Arsenal, this time on his Premier League debut
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Gyokeressssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss makes it 5-0 to the Arsenal and we are top of the league, I say we are top of the league
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FT: Arsenal 5-0 Leeds Utd
Timber x2, Saka, Gyokeres x2 with the goals.
15 year old max dowman made his first team debut and is the youngest player to play in a home game in the EPL, he won a penalty too.
We are top of the league.
now for the bad news, Odegaard off with a shoulder injury, Saka off with a hamstring injury. We await news of how severe either injury is.
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https://x.com/i/status/1959321983482769781
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Arteta said after the game that Saka’s injury looks significant
he also admitted that Eze phoned him on Wednesday to see if AFC was going to bid for him or not, and that there was a board meeting at AFC that day and it was agreed to go for him and the deal was quickly agreed on all fronts.
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Jeorge Bird
@jeorgebird
Dowman made his U18s debut at 13, his U21s debut at 14 and his first-team debut at 15. Incredible progress.
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Iam away so missed the game live so just had to do with updates. Fantastic to be top of the league and gazump the spuds twice in a week.
If Kiwior goes, as well as the other suspects then we will be short on defenders this season if we have the same injuries in that department as we have had in the past.
At the moment result wise everything in the garden in rosy.
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New post is up.
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