Morning all.
Arsenal Football Club stepped into the summer transfer window knowing that Mikel Arteta wanted a deeper and stronger squad. He got it.
Kepa, Martin Zubimendi, Cristhian Mosquera, Viktor Gyokeres, Noni Madueke, Christian Norgaard, Ebe Eze and Piero Hincapie all arrived at some stage throughout the summer. Hincapie was a loan deal but with an obligation to buy so he was ours for the foreseeable.
Not every Arsenal fan would have been pleased with all the names on the above list I’m sure but that’s life, not every person can be pleased all of the time.
As always, many players left the club too. Kieran Tierney, Jorginho, Nuno Tavares, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Jakub Kiwior being the main ones. Ethan Nwaneri left too but on a loan deal to Marseille. Fabio Vieira, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Reiss Nelson and Sambi Lokonga went out on loan again too. Thomas Partey left the club on expiry of his contract as did Raheem Sterling whose dreadful loan deal came to an end.
Other than the obvious, doing the double over Totts in the fashion we did it was great, as was repeating the feat against Newcastle Utd who had of late been a bit of a bogey team. Liverpool are another nemesis of ours and once more we couldn’t beat them. Nor could we beat Guardiola’s side.
A couple of draws in January and again in February led to the “bottlers” headline to reappear and they increased after we were beaten at home by Bournemouth before losing at The Etihad. As City raced to a 3-0 lead against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, remember “that photo” doing the rounds. Of course you do. It will haunt that Man City fans for the rest of his life.
However, it wasn’t Arsenal who ended up bottling what was a close race for the title. No, that was Man City as it was they who dropped points whereas Arsenal fought bloody hard to get the points needed to get us over the line. In the end, the points difference was seven! Easy eh….
Like with transfers, not every fan was a fan of the appointment of Mikel Arteta but what he’s done has been remarkable really. Not for just winning the Premier League but for the way he, as well as others at the club, has dragged Arsenal Football Club out of the gutter and brought the club back into the mix. Not only in England but in Europe too. The fan base are together again, in sync with the club. The support both home and away has been fantastic and that’s because there’s been a reason to believe again which pre Mikel Arteta had not been apparent for a number of years.
Now we have to kick on. Bring in better players than we have, different players to who we have and now we’ve finally conquered England, let’s go and conquer Europe too. We made it to the quarterfinal, then the semifinal and last season, the final when only penalties divided ourselves and PSG.
The Arsenal, 2025/26 Premier League Champions…
Well , well , there’s a new post.
Was a good toss to win.
77 I think Stuart. Certainly matches Eze relaxed style.
300-0
“Say you, say me” is one of my faves. My Dad used to sing it when he had been in his cups.
No, I didn’t read that, Rico. Must be in his late 70’s, still got a voice smooth as Vegemite.
That song should be turned into a terrace song for Eb’s.
45 mill well spent on Piero. Great signing.
200 for none after 50 overs in a test match!
Geoff, he was probably fit when we signed him. 😜
Did you see Lionel has been poorly Stuart? I loved the Commodores in their prime.
Hincapie deal confirmed by Arsenal.
I guess the transfer team have returned from their summer break. Lol
You’re singing a sweet song, Rico. Thanks for the post. “Easy, eh?” Easy like Sunday morning, mate.
Hot day, flat wicket… the Kiwis are flying. I hope you’ve got air con in your sherbert, Kev.
Rico, Sorry I wasn’t trying to blame any particular manager, more the recruiting / medical team that said buy him.
Afternoon Geoff. To be fair, Tierney was signed pre Arteta. Calafiori and his injuries worry me but hopefully after a summer off, he’ll be over them going forward.
Afternoon Rico and all, Hope the nights are cooling enough for to sleep.
We have defiantly had a few players that had a lot of potential come in that never worked out. How every saying that I still don’t know we brought Kieran Tierney he was injury prone before we brought, but at least we are now buying players we need not just because there is only 12 hours left and no one good come in.
Afternoon Cicero, thank you.
It’s still really hot down south. Blinds shut, windows shut and I’m melting 🤣
I like Eze but he needs to be more consistent imo. Goes missing too often. Madueke is all speed and not much else.
G’day Rico.
Excellent post thank you. As far as I’m concerned, none of the departures were a loss and we didn’t miss any of them.
Incomers were a mixed bag, Hincapie proved to be one of the best along side Zubimendi, Mosquera and Gyokeres. I still have reservations about both Eze and Madueke, neither are game changers, neither are regular scorers. Ok back-ups but not regular starters.
It looks like being a very long day in the field for England, I wouldn’t bet against New Zealand finishing the day with 400+ plus on the board still with wickets in hand.
Cooler here this morning, I even cut half of the rear lawn before breakfast.