Good morning one and all.
Well that was not a fun watch, or was it?
Arsenal churned out a hard fought one nil win at Villa park, or did they?
We laboured and fell over the line, or did we?
There is great jeopardy for a viewer like me, sitting on the edge of my sofa, praying that we can cling on, like grim death, to the narrowest of leads. But reality doesn’t care about my fear and trepidation.
We are two games into the season , three games all told, and we have yet to concede a goal. That is impressive in itself, but dig a bit deeper and we find that not only have we not allowed a goal, but we haven’t given up even a shot on target. This is without our best defender by the way, What sort a black magic is this?
We all, mostly, hoped to see a more expansive and dashing version of Arsenal this new season, and I think the green shoots are their, but last night was far from that. However, Villa are a defence based team, and Villa park under floodlight is a difficult place to go, so really, what do we expect? That win was so efficient that it’s ridiculous. Arteta saw what was coming and set up accordingly. I’m convinced that had Villa come at us we would have cut them to shreds, Emery knew that and so did Mikel, so it didn’t happen. You can only play what is in front of you and this team usually has the answers. It might not be pretty, but effective it certainly is.
I suspect that the main reason we didn’t make more chances and score more, was that our captain had a poor dame on the creative side. But still we made enough to win.
We have Bruno to come in regularly and I think he offers another dimension, Saliba and Timber we strengthen us defensive and in build up, and despite many reservations from our super fans, I feel Eze can and will do a good job on the left.
Our fullbacks are ruling the roost……………oh God, this is turning into a fluff piece, sorry folks, but I am massively confident that what will come this season is silverware.
What say you positives?
Pedantic George.
Absolutely George, win when it matters and be resolute when you have to.
Mikel said it’s only the second game but it was a must win , the PL is crazy nowadays and it’s also relentless.
A thousand players have been brought to the division and the money has also gone crazy.
Doing the business on the pitch is what we need rather than making noises off it.
The ref was awful last night and certainly didn’t help us and especially our new winger.
On another day we would have got two penalties and the scoreline would have looked more impressive. Had the officials clamped down on villa earlier, then our players would have got the freedom they needed. Apparently in the fifteen games he has reffed villa he has never given a penalty against them, interesting.
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Ethan has joined Dortmund on loan, considering their history of improving young players, that looks like a good move.
Veira has signed for Hamburg and Jesus has completed his move to Barcelona.
I have just seen a report saying Alvarez is now considering a move to ARSENAL but there would have to be a Barcelona clause in the deal. Sounds a bit dodgy to me.
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Evening lads, hope ye be well? being a sad tool, Ive been chatting with my best mate Chatgpt. So I thought I give it PA to go over the last few seasons..
Some thigns it rated and thoguht about.
Category My rating Community 9.5/10 Sense of history 9.5/10 Personality 9/10 Humour 9/10 Genuine discussion 8.5/10 Football analysis 8/10 Willingness to criticise Arsenal 8/10 Representation of Arsenal fans generally 6/10 Toxicity 2/10 Overall 8.8/10
it then said:
One final observation There’s something rather old-fashioned about PA that I increasingly like. It doesn’t seem obsessed with winning arguments. There are disagreements, certainly. But the site feels more concerned with maintaining the relationship between the people having the argument. That is increasingly unusual online.
it then went on to assess it further and said this:
Community: 9.5/10 Personality: 9.5/10 Quality of disagreement: 9/10 Football discussion: 8.5/10 Openness to criticism: 8.5/10 Independence of thought: 8.5/10 Toxicity: 2/10 Echo-chamber risk: 5.5/10 Overall: 9/10
it then said this:
George Editorial centre / conversation starter Ian Major critical counterweight Eduardo Live match intelligence / statistics / youth teams Mills Community stabiliser / contributor Foreverheady Occasional matchday/community voice Others Reinforcement, humour, disagreement, specialist observations
Comunity stabiliser? I thought I was the community tool! LOL!!!
It the revised its analysis:
Community: 9.5/10 Discussion: 9/10 Personality: 9.5/10 Longevity: 9.5/10 Independence of opinion: 8.5/10 Risk of becoming insular: 6.5/10 Dependence on a few contributors: 7/10 Overall: 9/10 The 6.5/10 insularity risk is the important warning.
Later it described us as a lovel little eco sytsem and went into everyone contributions and said some very complimentary things about us all. Cgagpt weird though, it can give you a different perspevitive if you push it that way! Hope you found it interesting though…COYG!
ps nice piece George, certainly covered how it felt last night,,,
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if Martinelli leaves, and it seems odds on as he has undergone his medical and agreed a contract with Al Hilal then Arsenal will have once again left themselves 3 players short of the 25 players over 21 allowed in the first team squad,
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Arsenal Women are set to sign French central defender Elisa de Almeida(28) from Paris Saint Germain for £550k
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reports that Folarin Balogun has failed his medical with Everton and the transfer could be off. Would mean AFC don’t get the £7m sell on
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some reports that Martinelli will be named in our 25 man squad tomorrow as his transfer won’t be completed till later in the week.
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KSE are adding the Los Angeles Angles baseball team to their list of clubs.
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KSE bought controlling stake in the Angles, they are poop this season, and currently 17 games behind,now if he had bought the Dodgers…maybe the Angels will turn around? The Astros and Rangers tend to dominate that league with the Mariners givin it some competition. The Dodgers bought/loaning some great players and they are looknig at three world series in a row, The WS is a tough competition to win
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mills it seems KSE are spending big at LA Rams again this season
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KSE look pretty ambitious at the moment Ed…
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Ornstein says Arsenal “keeping their powder dry” for January or next summer, in regards an attacking signing.
I do wonder is the real problem in recruiting forwards being that they have to be the finished article as Arteta just doesn’t know how to improve a forward. Did Jesus improve at AFC, has Gyokeres or Havertz or Madueke improved at AFC. Is the reason Arteta wanted Vini Jr or Alvarez is cos he can’t improve forwards. Or is it the system that hinders the attckers but gets the best out of defenders.
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Tommy Setford joining Stevenage on loan for the season
we are likely to see Remy Mitchell named in the 25 man squad to make up numbers.
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After Sunday’s home game v Chelsea we play four away games in a row. Napoli, Sunderland, Ipswich and Brighton.
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So this is likely to be the 25 man squad(if we name a full 25) we name tomorrow for the EPL season,
GK – Raya, Kepa, Meslier, Mitchell
RB – White, Timber
LB – Calafiori, Hincapie
CB – Saliba, Konsa, Gabriel, Mosquera
CM – Rice, Bruno, Zubimendi, MLS
AM – Odegaard, Merino
RW – Saka, Madueke, Dowman
LW – Tzolis, Eze
ST – Havertz, Gyokeres
only change we might see is Salmon included instead of having Mitchell listed, as Remy is basically only a training player to make up numbers.
We have no need to name any player aged 21 or younger, like MLS, Dowman, Salmon.
we might see Martinelli listed as his move not completed yet but expected to be done tomorrow or in the coming days.
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I wonder if some of the jazzy game-changing forwards we have supposedly been showing an interest in look at the way Arsenal players are treated by defenders and referees and conclude that they would rather not make their way to North London. The Villa game we have just played being but one of many examples where the dice seem loaded from the start. I am sure players from all clubs must be aware of it and I am sure they talk to each other.
It also occurs to me that there are two transfer markets. One conducted between clubs operating on a ponzi-type basis, where real money doesn’t properly exist, the other involving clubs that appear to stick to more or less realistic player valuations (if any of the current valuations could possibly be said to be realistic).
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I’m sorry to see Martinelli go, and hope he can return to the form he once seemed capable of, perhaps even returning to a more challenging league once his nest is properly feathered.
I’m glad though that after the fuss that was made of Gyokeres this time last year he will now have a chance to prove that he is the Arsenal player The Arsenal presumably thought he might be. We might see a bit more of Dowman too and as ever it will be fascinating to see if he can develop in the way his talent seems to hint at. It will perhaps seem a bit odd to him not to be returning to school this week, and it will be hard also as he starts to be treated like a proper player and not some kind of Britain’s Got Talent child prodigy. I think he’ll needs lots of love, patience and understanding.
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Ed, just want to say thanks for rounding up all the info on the daily transfer news this summer and putting it up here on PA. Was a lot of stats facts and figures for sure and kept us well informed. Thanks mate! COYG!
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foreverheady two of your points cross over, players have to know that many refs see Arsenal players as fair game, for a start opponents would not do the tackles they do if they didn’t know that the ref is going to let them get away with it. This is bound to play on the minds of those players thinking of joining us, remember Alexandar Hleb decided to leave Arsenal after what he seen done to Eduardo at Birmingham.
the cross over point is Dowman, my biggest fear for his development is that he is going to be kicked out of the game. It already happens to him at U18 and U21 level, when our lads played Man UTd in the FA Youth Cup they did rotational fouling on him, ref let first bad one go for each player that did it, and utd even subbed off 3 of their lads that got booked for kicking Max, and the subs all got booked. Also those on bookings continued to kick him but no second yellow. Max missed a chunk of last season cos he got a bad injury in a friendly v Man UTd U21’s, a tackle that our coach said was premeditated. In preseason Max got took out of it in a couple of games.
A national player with the talent of Max would be protected by refs in Spain, the way they protect Yamal. PGMOL refs have this funny idea that its only right to let the less talented player EVEN THE FIELD by kicking the skilled player in England.
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I think the biggest loss with Martinelli is his speed, he was our most likely player to score on a solo breakaway, he done it a few times in the CL last season.
Maybe the signing of Bruno means Eze will now be deployed wide left in most of his games, not something I’m against, after all I was calling for it many times last season. I hope Tzolis is quicker than I think he is, cos I think its important to have speed in attack.
our only big concern in regards the squad is the amount of players with poor injury records, foreverheady has told us the reason for that already, and the pgmol are not going to change how the ref us anytime soon.
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Reiss Nelson has signed for Feyenoord
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on January 10th we will have Victor Ozhianvuna joining us when he turns 18, and I think this lad could surprise a lot of people and be part of the first team squad straight away.
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Please remind me about this lad, Eduardo. I like the idea that having reduced our store of Gabriels we are now stockpiling Victors.
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Victor Ozhianvuna of Shamrock Rovers is a very versatile player, he made his debut as a right back, then was used as a right wing back, before going to his more natural midfield position, he played right wing, central midfield and was a regular for them as wide left player. Won the league and cup double with Rovers last season, he is currently recovering from an injury and Rovers manager Stephen Bradley(former Arsenal youth player and was a scout for Arsenal in Ireland) said recently that Victor would soon be fit to return but that they would discuss with Arsenal how to proceed.
Victor is one of those players that always seems to have time on the ball, and does the right thing, the right pass, he doesn’t go glory hunting, in fact I often think he could shoot more. He certainly has bulked up, which he had to do with the rough treatment he gets from opponents. He seemed to get kicked more from the time his move to Arsenal was confirmed. He has scored a couple of spectacular goals.
The Ireland manager had considered calling him up to the senior team last term but said he would do so this season, but the recent injury will probably delay it now till after he joins Arsenal.
the following is how Shamrock Rovers describe him
Victor is a powerhouse midfielder who has been earmarked for success since his early Academy days. A dynamic box-to-box operator, he combines impressive athleticism with technical composure. An Ireland youth international, his ability to drive forward with the ball and break defensive lines has drawn comparisons to some of the club’s great midfielders. Having signed for Arsenal from January 2027, Victor is set to play a significant role in Stephen Bradley’s plans for the 2026 campaign.
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Bruno G and Mosquera both missed Arsenal’s open training session today, and Timber was doing individual training on grass.
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an odd rumor today that the reason Arsenal did not give Gyokeres any game time yet in our two EPL games is that with Jesus leaving it means Victor will be given the No.9 shirt and this could not have been done if he played as he’d have to keep his current number for the season once used.
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Arsenal have confirmed the sale of Martinelli
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Arsenal Champions League A-List:
Goalkeepers
1. David Raya, 13. Kepa Arrizabalaga, 30. Illan Meslier
Defenders
2. William Saliba, 3. Cristhian Mosquera, 4. Ben White, 5. Piero Hincapie, 6. Gabriel, 12. Jurrien Timber, 15. Ezri Konsa, 33. Riccardo Calafiori
Midfielders
8. Martin Odegaard, 10. Eberechi Eze, 20. Noni Madueke, 23. Mikel Merino, 29. Kai Havertz, 36. Martin Zubimendi, 39. Bruno Guimaraes, 41. Declan Rice
Forwards
7. Bukayo Saka, 14. Viktor Gyokeres, 17. Christos Tzolis
the B list will be submitted later, it will include the likes of MLS and Dowman and a whole host of young players.
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Andria Bartishvili is said to have completed his medical today and is due to sign his Arsenal contract tomorrow, and will join up with us when he turns 18. He will be 18 in March but its likely he won’t play for us till next season, there is a chance he could join us in March and play some youth games but I’d say that its more likely he will see out the season at his current club or loan club.
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Arsenal’s 25 Man EPL squad and the U21 list – just the 22 players in the 25 man squad.
Arrizabalaga Revuelta, Kepa
Calafiori, Riccardo
Dos Santos Magalhaes, Gabriel
Eze, Eberechi Oluchi*
Guimaraes Rodriguez Moura, Bruno
Gyokeres, Viktor Einar
Havertz, Kai
Hincapie Reyna, Piero Martin
Konsa, Ezri*
Madueke, Chukwunonso Azuka Tristan*
Merino Zazon, Mikel
Meslier, Illan
Mosquera Ibargüen, Cristhian Andrey
Odegaard, Martin
Raya Martin, David*
Rice, Declan*
Saka, Bukayo*
Saliba, William*
Timber, Jurrien
Tzolis, Christos
White, Benjamin*
Zubimendi Ibanez, Martin
U21 players (Contract and Scholars; *Home grown)
Abubakar, Hakeem Adnan
Agustien, Demiane Hesus
Arteta Bernal, Gabriel Sebastian
Bailey-Joseph, Brando Nyle
Clarke, Brayden Cian
Copley, Louie George
Dixon, Jaden Benjamin James*
Donczew, Axel Karol
Dowman, Max Robert*
Frohock, Marley Linnaeus Henry
Hamill, Callan
Harriman-Annous, Andre Ryan
Hashi, Maalik Hakeem Mohamed
Ibrahim, Ifeoluwa David
Julienne, Theo Devon
Kabia, Ismeal (Loan)
King, Josiah Barack
Lewis-Skelly, Myles Anthony*
Lupinski, Remigiusz
Mbala, Elyon Zikansa
McCarron, Daniel James
Mooney, Evan Andrew
Murisa, Teshaun Tarumbidzwa
Nwaneri, Emerson Paul Kelechi
Nwaneri, Ethan* (Loan)
Nygaard, Lucas Martin
O’Neill, Ceadach Liam
Oba, Jayden Daniel Tomiwa
Odaji-Ukueku, Theo Evandro Oghenekevwe
Ogunnaike, Joshua
Ogunneye, Habeeb Omotolani Oluwatoyin
Owusu-Gyasi, Abraham
Pedro, Angelinou Mbele
Phillips, Bowen Bradley
Porter, Jack Kenny
Purdy, Charlie Daniel
Ranson, Khari Bolaji Mawuvi
Salmon, Marli Ellis
Sampang, Saurap
Scanlon, James Robert
Sesay, Joshua Charlie
Setford, Tommy Hogan
Stachow, Patrick
Stevens, Archie
Tahou, Joshua Jimmitry
Talbot, Jack Edward
Tyjon, Igor Justin*
Upson, Elijah Richard
Washington, Marcell Yamani
Zecevic John, Louis Alexander
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15 year old goalie phoenix blayney who will join Arsenal next summer was named on the bench for Larne earlier this week in their Senior Shield Cup game v Newington
by the way Mark Randall the former Arsenal midfielder captained Larne in that game, he played 13 times for our first team, twice in the EPL.
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just to update the last post, Phoenix Blayney actually came on as a late sub to make his Senior debut for Larne. Not bad for a 15 year old goalie.
Phoenix’s dad Alan played for Northern Ireland and some of the many clubs he played for were Southampton, Bournemouth, Brighton , Doncaster Rovers and Oldham, he was a goalie too. He is currently Larne’s goalkeeper coach.
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Arsenal Women have confirmed the signing of French central defender Elisa de Almeida
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also in the Larne team was Jordan McEneff, who was in the Arsenal Academy
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Anyone seen the Dean confessions?Nix we didnt already know, depsite the gaslighting. Makes you want to puke.
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George sent the preview over, COYG!
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It’s up
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