Morning all.
Does this Arsenal squad, what’s left of it, have what it takes to go out there today and prove their worth? To leave their last drop of energy on the St Mary’s turf this evening and walk away with their head held high knowing there’s nothing more they could have given. Can they win a match for what would be just the tenth time this season? I don’t think so but I love being wrong. Arsenal somehow need to bounce back from two quick fire defeats away from home. I say bounce back but in reality it’s more like a 4X4 is required to pull them out of some quicksand they’ve fallen into into. Southampton haven’t found life easy this season either having lost nine home fixtures already. They are there for the taking if Arsenal are up for it.
”They are a very German side. A manager who has the team into pressing mode, they are really aggressive, really good on the counter-press, really good on the transition, they know what they’re doing and they all seem very committed to him. A very dangerous team. I know it’s a really difficult ground to go to there. They have no fear, they go for it and they really believe in what they do and they compete really, really well. We have to be ready and I’m sure on Thursday we will be ready.” – Mikel Arteta.
Mikel might call it ‘German’ I’d just say Southampton play like they want to win. Close to the edge is probably the kindest choice of words. They’re strong and will get stuck in. They’ve struggled at St Mary’s this season. We’ve just struggled, period!
Let’s be honest, Arsenal are in a mess. From front to back we’re soft. The concentration levels are poor and we don’t like to scrap for a result. The Mikel Arteta effect seems to have worn off but that in my opinion says more about certain players than it does him. The same players who hanged Wenger, Emery and Freddie out to dry.
We have players who look like they’d rather be anywhere else but playing for Arsenal and we’re dishing out contracts to a footballing OAP, a player who arrived injured and hasn’t yet played for the club and another who suffered an injury before the ink was dry on his contract. Luiz is liability, we knew that before he arrived and he’s done nothing to shake off that label. Cedric and Mari might prove to be shrewd signings and I hope for Arteta’s sake they are because he’s rubber stamped them in front of the media.
Meanwhile, the Bukayo Saka saga drags on. I hope his agents aren’t squabbling over a few thousand pounds a week extra with Arsenal because I’d rather see Saka secured on a long term contract than throwing good money after bad at Luiz!
- Arsenal have lost 10 points from winning positions in their 12 Premier League games under Mikel Arteta – as many as they’d lost in their previous 36 combined under Freddie Ljungberg and Unai Emery.
That’s a grim statistic to have on a CV for any manager starting his career and I’m sure Mikel Arteta isn’t rolling over laughing about it. He knows what he wants but at times it seems he’s swimming against the same tide those before him did. ‘It’s not me it’s them gov’nor’ and I think it is. Them! The common denominator over the last few years has been the type of player we’ve signed. Soft. Alexis Sanchez is the last one I remember who had a bit about him. He wanted to win and I mean really wanted to win and played like it. Until it seemed, he realised he was on his own. Aaron Ramsey was another but in typical Arsenal fashion, he left for free. Don’t get me wrong, his reported financial demands, or rather his agents, were stupid but had the club tied him to a contract extension earlier, Arsenal would have made a huge profit on his sale or kept a player who could on his day, make a difference. But no, let’s allow players to run down their contracts and suffer one way or another because of it.
Southampton, a club with a great history for producing talent. Sadly for them, seldom do they get to keep them but in all fairness, if they didn’t operate in the way they do, they might have struggled to stay afloat. Get It? No, ok.
Fans or no fans, Southampton will be rubbing their hands together ahead of our 6pm fixture because they’ll know we’re beatable. A chance to finally register a home win this year. Ralph Hasenhuttl will have seen enough of us against Brighton to know that whilst we’re a threat up front, we’re porous in midfield and dodgy in defence.
But as said earlier, Southampton aren’t so great themselves but what they will do is never give up…
See you in the comments guys.
Morning, Rico! Nice one!
St Mary’s…. a bogey ground of ours, along with numerous others! I’d be lying if I said I felt confident of a good performance and 3 points!! It’s been a disappointing week on planet Arsenal and I really don’t see tonight being any different! Danny Ings worries me!! Plus it’s shocking we’ve only registered 9 wins!!!
The worst defender in the league – so I read – is one of theirs – Valery.. I was surprised by that, so what’s the betting we make him look like VVD tonight?! 😂😂
Mikel expects a reaction… don’t we all!! As 3 losses on the spin really doesn’t bear thinking about!
Bloody hell, it’s boiling already!!!
Morning Sue, thanks.
Ings worries me too. Plus they have a player who hasn’t scored in 40 odd matches so the writing is on the wall there to.
Well that’s a dead cert then… best we go and put a tenner on 😂😂
😂 just a tenner?
Good morning Rico, good morning Sue.
Breakfast in the garden this morning, very pleasant with light breeze to ruffle The Telegraph…and a bit of good news in the paper, according to Arteta a new contract for Saka is “very close”.
One signing prepared to stick up for himself and his team-mates was the one quickly, and infamously, sold namely Gabriel Armando de Abreu, commonly known as Gabriel Paulista. What would we give now for someone with a bit of fire in his belly?
Rico.. 😂😂😂👍
Good morning, Cicero… ooh breakfast in the garden, hey?! Sounds lovely!!
Surely you’ll be having a nap later?! The excitement has left the building, for sure?!! 😄
Morning Rico and all. The cunning outsmart-the-market ‘plan’ that was hatched in the mind of Raul and apparently bought into by the rest of those in control seems to be taking shape. I hope there are some quality deals in the pipeline and that it runs a bit deeper than making it up as they go along. The Luiz deal is worrying to me as his role as a liability seems to have increased exponentially since he arrived. All this moving and shaking that is going on seems worryingly intertwined with agents who themselves are growing richer and richer while the evidence right now looks like we are merely treading water.
We need to be looking toward competing with Man City and Liverpool and Man Utd etc and we are a long, long way (perhaps light-years) from that. Are these deals really going to kick the club onto an upward trajectory?
As I said, I really, really hope there is some serious quality arriving but am I confident?
Morning Cicero.
I didn’t think anyone bought a newspaper these day. 😂
Scott mentioned Gabriel yesterday. I liked him but he could be a bit rash. No worse than Luiz, in fact probably much better but I guess Wenger didn’t like his toughness.
Adam. The short answer, no.
I know I sound like an old ‘78 with a stuck needle but I can’t see how the club can buy and pay quality right now, not with our over inflated wage bill which in itself raises more questions as to why the club would give Luiz another contract.
Maybe next summer, when the likes of Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette and Luiz depart, if not before, with the near on a £1m spent on them a month removed, we’ll begin to see more experienced players sign.
Morning Rico and All
Your post is a grim but true reading of whats
going on Rico.
Micky must of had a vision after working with
peppermint of the type of football he wanted,
maybe he was getting that before the covit struck,
what he has now looks to be half hearted,talent yes.
One thing for sure is most of this squad will still be here
next season.
My approach to this game will have to be a negative,
and hop[e for a shock.
Can’t believe I typed that.(Southamton)
Wenger forced Gabriel out because of his competative attitude. he didn’t fit the nice silky image he wanted to project .
As many of us said then , Wenger had forgotten where his success came from . . None of Dixon , Adams , Bould ,Winterburn , Keown were shrinking violets Shoving Petit and Vieira in front of them and we were rock solid in the middle and back.
He developed the losing attitude from which we have never recovered and still today are finding it impossible to reverse.
Wenger also produced a system where all teams at all ages played to his system which is why we are still producing players in the same image . Talented , quick passing , fast moving effectively 5 a side players .
I had hoped that Mertesacker taking over the kids would have the same effect as Keown had on the defence in our run to Paris all those years ago but if it is to bear fruit it needs to hurry up.
Morning all.
We will be winning tonight, and winning well.
Absolutely no question at all!!
I mean the mighty Sydney Swans in the AFL hahahaha
Nah come on, it’s very easy and understandable to get down and depressed with the Arsenal, however, I’m sure most agreed when Arteta took over, it was a fix that’d take a few years at least, so let’s stop being down in the dumps, accept the fact we are average and trust in the man to do right by the club and it’s fans, and get us back where we should be.
Top 4 should be an expectation, anything else is lovely but it will take some time to even get to that point.
He is the man.
I’ll stand by him 100%.
Rico. I agree which is why I favoured a proper re-set. An admittance that things had to change and that a new method and structure was being introduced to facilitate the re-building of the club and the team.
As for Gabriel. He was ok but nowhere near the player we have needed since Sol moved out. Without an elite spine within our team we aren’t going anywhere that we might aspire too.
Morning Fred. I’ve written off this season. Actually, I’d given up on it months ago so I expect a loss most match days. Sad, but it’s where we are.
Mikel needs a lot of support in what and who he wants I think. But it seems Edu is right behind him.
Scott, all I’d really like to see is improvement but with so many injuries, achieving that is harder. I thought we started well under Mikel, but it seems this break did us no favours whatsoever.
Adam, the club are to private for that imo. I wouldn’t be sorry to see Raul go if it meant the club adopted a different approach to transfers, or at least what appears to be their approach.
But you’re right, if they spoke to the fans and we’re honest about the long term plan and what comes with it, we’d at least know what to expect.
Rico that’s it, we all saw some improvement in individuals and in attitude quite quickly.
We shouldn’t forget that.
This break couldn’t have come at a worse time but it happened, so we start again.
Adam, imo Gabriel was a decent player, no star, but he was as tough as nails and we needed that-still do i reckon, but I do have high hopes in Saliba.
He could well be the CB we waited 10 plus years for.
No excuse it taking this long!!!
Rico. While acknowledging the shortcomings and bemoaning the injury situation that seems a constant problem, I look through the team and still think that we should be doing better, even with our current personnel.
I can only conclude that there’s a systemic or cultural problem. That’s the first thing I had hoped that Mikel would have addressed, but perhaps this awful re-start after the COVID delay has been very problematic for us and distorted the good work he initially did.
Is it fair to say that during the lock down period, certain players have been talking to other clubs and decided they want out?
3 months is a long time to do nothing, especially when down to your last 12-14 months in a contract.
We could have 3-4 who’ve decided they want out and are yet to say so.
Some are definitely different players than they were 4 months back.
Quality Players.
Training Ground.
Great Stadium.
High Wages.
Huge support.
Billionaire Owner.
So whats missing?
It might be…Heart(just a thought)
Scott..As much as I want to think
Saliba is going to change the squad,
into diehards its highly unlikely
19/20 year olds are lucky these days
to play more than 20 games a season
top flight.
Fred, I never said he’d change our squad.
We also need a top class DM and a striker or two.
Agreed Scott. Aubameyang and his tracking back seems to have disappeared quicker than it arrived though.
Rico, he wants out imo, and has done for a while.
Adam, I don’t. Not really, not with the midfield we have.
Fred, I think we’re lacking quality and heart. We have numbers all over the positions, but the core, as Adam said, is spineless.
Spot on Potter.
Scott, as long as Saka isn’t one of them, I’m not overly fussed who goes. Someone mentioned the way Auba was at Dortmund. Jm perhaps, well were seeing it again at Arsenal imo.
The spine has been absent for so many years now Rico
gave up a along time ago with that one.
Pretty-boy-Pitit is all over the papers with it is as well.
Rico, I agree we should keep him, but I don’t like the games he’s playing.
It has Fred, dreadful to think any manager would neglect the core of a team.
Saka Scott? What games is he playing?
Rico, when he signs, I’ll say he’s stopped playing games 🙂
I think Saka is determined to play to his own script.
He doesn’t want to play at left back, nor should he he’s nowhere near good enough at defending. He wants a guaranteed starting spot on the left wing. He wants a wage which he feels is commensurate with his own estimation of his skills and his value to the club.
No doubt his agent has been stirring him up in the hope of a nice little earner for himself.
His agent is the Nigerian Emeka Obasi who has come under the spotlight after receiving 200,000 pounds (N93.2 million) as agency commission following the transfer of highly-rated winger Jadon Sancho to Manchester City from Watford in March 2015 when the player was 14 years old.
As well as Saka Alex Iwobi, Ola Aina, Ademola Lookman and Chuba Akpom are represented by Obasi’s Elite Project Group Limited.
Looks like he spends his time sniffing round Arsenal’s youth training ground if 60 % of his clients come from there .
Der Speigel in Germany are saying that his payment from Man City for Sancho was illegal because the player was under age .
Is this another one of Kev’s nine bob notes.?
He’ll turn out to be the brother-in-law of that Nigerian billionaire reputed to be thinking of buying out the Kroenkes.
Hi Rico and all Lucky I am not in charge of negotiations I would say to Saka there is our offer take it or sit on bench in the reserves for the next 12 months. For Years now we have been taking to long with negotiations with both buying and new contracts.
Ok Scott. You’re on about contractual games..
Yes Rico.
I honestly hope the kid stays.
He’s a star in the making but I’d love to see him show some real desire to stay.
Let’s hope it’s done soon as reported.
Another nice agent then. Why on earth don’t parents get involved..
Rico, it may be a million to one, but if my lad makes it to any professional level, I guarantee he won’t have some shark “looking after” him.
You mean it won’t be you acting as his agent Scott? 😉
Emeka Obasi, didn’t he used to blog on HH..?
Hey Rick, a couple of 20 year olds leaving at the end of the month in Omole and Tormey, with Tormey actually turning down the offer of a 3 year contract!
Now you don’t turn down a 3 year contract unless you have a couple of other offers in the bank, so he’s obviously looked at the situation with all the players in front of him and actually showed some ambition by moving on instead taking the easy route, good for him I hope he has a great career.
Matthew Dennis is leaving as well meaning that there’s only four 2nd year scholars left from that group; Greenwood, Tom Smith, Matthews and Alebiosu ( who could also be leaving)…
Martinez..Bellerin.. Holding.. Mustafi..Tierney..Xhaka..Ceballos.. Pepe.. Saka.. Nketiah..Auba
Tonights Team
Martinez Bellerin Mustafi Teirny
Xhaka Cebolse Saka
Eddie Abuu Pepe
Dozy Not in squad
Kev Mat Smith is in squad one out of the blue
Big fan of him back after the game
Good to see Guendouzi dropped.
Afternoon guys.
Hi Rico… All yellow kit 😁
Hi Sue, I love the yellow kit.
Saka the latest casualty? No he’s back on.
Get in there!!
One nil to the Arsenal! ‘keeper’s howler, Nketiah grateful.
Evening all, what times the game?
just joking, 3 points at last. Holding, MOTM!
Excellent result.
Yay! We’re not going down 😂 I did not see that coming, a win and a clean sheet on the road!! Thank heavens for that!!
Well done, Rob, MOTM!!
Their gk – De Gea-esque…😂
I hope Tierney will be alright…
Scott.. remember that stat from the other night?! Well it’s just gone up 😉
Come on City!!
Yep, I hope City batter Chelsea.
Hmm, a win, three points, a clean sheet and a slight improvement in goal difference. We must be grateful I suppose but I am far from convinced by the direction the team is moving in.
We seem to be entirely incapable of winning the ball in any area of the pitch, either on the ground or in the air, that said Rob Holding made some good clearances and showed just how good he can be. I sincerely hope he can remain injury free for long enough to cement his position at centre back. In a season or so he could well be the club Captain.
My disenchantment with the misfiring Aubameyang continues unabated.
Bellerin had better get planting 😝
Funny old game, a real mish mash of Emeryesque football and then flashes of what we can do, and it was good, Saka was good, Nketiah was good, Mustafi was steady, Holding was excellent, Bellerin was a mixed bag, Xhaka was steady but I do wish he would pass the ball a bit quicker as having a 2nd touch does bugger up opportunities, Aubameyang on another day would score three, you can’t knock his work rate but his finishing is off.
Great clean sheet for Martinez, delighted for him, now keep it up.
Arteta gets his first away win, so good news all round.
Any win away at Southampton must be deeply appreciated. Can remember lots of bad performances there. I didn’t think we would hold out for a clean sheet, so credit to the boys. Must win more 50/50s though and soon as we started backing off I feared the worse. Can smile tonight 🙂
The night I’ve been dreading for months has finally arrived… 😔
Finally a victory!
We must always play in yellow kit!
The difference between City and Liverpool is in the quality of the right and the left backs.
Sue????
One word, Cicero – Liverpool!
Morning all.
I had kick off time wrong by several hours so missed the game!!
Oh well, I woke up to a nice surprise.
Cicero, I have had the boy locked in to a verbal contract since he was 5, I’m Mr 50% 🙂
Sue, yes,
Mikel remains unbeaten when Xhaka plays 90 minutes!!!!
Great to hear Holding has done well, he was always going to take time after that injury so seems he’s headed the right way.
Great stuff!!
Well you know what that means Scott, it means if you want Arsenal to win you simply have to miss the games and watch them on catch up.
Otherwise when we lose, it’s your fault……… 😄
I can live with that Kev 🙂
Once in thirty years isn’t too much to worry about Sue.
Scott, verbal agreements aren’t worth the paper they are written on. 😉
Cicero, I’ve got him covered hahahahaha
One word, Cicero – Liverpool!
Once in thirty years isn’t too much to worry about
They are releasing a new song , Gerry Marsden is coming out of retirement “You’ll never hear the last of it ” is the title.
Ha ha Potter.
Morning guys.
New post up.
Brilliant, Potter!!!! You’re so right…I’m absolutely devastated.. 😭
Reading the media this morning, they said it`s the end of 30 years of hurt for the Bindippers!………………………..if that is so, then The Spuds must be on a life support machine!
😂 Lc
I see all the old suspects are lining up for Guendouzi , PSG , Barca , Inter , Atletico Madrid . According to French papers . If he’s leaking things this way it’s a big mistake.