Morning guys.
Just when it looks like we might see Gabriel Jesus in Arsenal colours again this season, Barcelona have swooped in for a late and very cheap deal. Good for him I say. The same as happened with Fabio Vieira as he’s off to Hamburg. Our departures this summer, including Gabriel Martinelli if he goes which looks likely, will have wiped nearly £50 million a year off the clubs wage bill. I just hope that money or at least a big chunk of it doesn’t end up in Alvarez’s pocket… just today and tomorrow left of this transfer window left thank goodness.
Arsenal take on Aston Villa tonight. It’s fair to say that Unai Emery has gone through a tough transfer window where he’s lost a number of his better players. Martinez has gone to Chelsea, as has Rogers, Watkins has gone off to Saudi Arabia, Tielemans has joined Man Utd, Digne has moved to PSG, Malen to Roma, Barrenechea has moved to Benfica and lastly, Ezri Konsa is now an Arsenal player. Others have moved on too but their names are not familiar to me and a number of them are loan deals. Still, they have brought in £250 million during this summer so far. Most of which has come from the deep pockets of Chelsea.
Whether they have bought well to replace their outgoing players is something only time will tell. Jackson, Suzuki, Garnacho, Wan-Bissika, Ruggeri, Gomes and Manzambi are the new guys to date.
Arsenal’s Adrian Clarke:
The big tactical takeaway from Villa’s game against Brighton was how they failed to cope with the press. Determined to play out from the back, even up against a hostile man-to-man set-up, Emery’s men were caught on the ball numerous times, especially when passes were fed into central midfield. Conceding a league-high 19 high turnovers on MW1, we will have plenty of encouragement to close down Villa’s players with aggression.
Incidentally, this tactic worked brilliantly for us in the second half of our stunning 4-1 home win over Villa last term, so I sense we will try to hassle the hosts in a man-to-man press again. This comes with risk, leaving ourselves 1v1 or 2v2 at the back, but while Villa always posed a huge threat on the break, without Rogers and Watkins, that danger feels slightly diminished.
Another way we may look to hurt the Villains is by launching accurate switches of play, especially to our left-hand side, where Christos Tzolis and Riccardo Calafiori enjoyed lots of success against Coventry. When the Italian pushes forward on the inside, he will look to create a 2v1 around the right-back. We scored our opener from that type of situation last time out, whereas Villa also conceded a very similar goal last weekend.
Experienced midfielder John McGinn is now arguably the most impactful Villa starter. The Scot occupies a narrow right-wing position that makes him difficult to pick up, and he usually shines in the biggest games. We must not allow him too much space in the pockets, because he is talented enough to hurt any team in the division.
Team News:
Aston Villa will be without Gomes after his red card against Brighton last weekend, Amado Onana is ruled out for most if not all of the season after suffering an ACL injury at the World Cup and Manzambi is out too. Tammy Abraham and Brian Mario are doubts but Jackson, Suzuki, Wan-Bissaka and Goretzka are in contention to make their debuts.
Arsenal are without Jurrien Timber and William Saliba but Ezri Konsa will be in the squad according to the manager and Bruno Guimaraes could also return. Other than that, the squad is likely be the same as last weekend. Whether the starting eleven is the same remains to be seen.
I know it’s only game two but already Ben White has played a lot of football, as has Kai Havertz, both after missing a lot of last season through injury. Will Ezri Konsa make his debut against his old club? Will Viktor Gyokeres get to feature for the first time this season I wonder. Will Ethan Nwaneri be in the squad or is he heading out on loan? Perhaps tonight’s match, or at least the squad details will go some way to answering a couple of questions.
Most importantly tonight though is putting in a good performance and getting three points.
Catch up in the comments.
I know Gabriel is a great defender. He’s brave, he’ll use his head to block any shot where most would duck, but there’s one aspect to his game which in my opinion has a negative effect on the team. He doesn’t look confident with the ball at his feet. When he receives a pass, which generally comes from his right, he nearly always has a couple of touches and sends it back again. I sometimes think he must be blind in his left eye because there is often a pass opportunity to someone on the left wing, but no, he passes the ball back to his right. I know we have a very strong right wing but by not using the left enough creates an unbalance in the team. I find this very frustrating. Has anyone else noticed this?
Mick, there’s a new post up. Pop your comment on there..
Worst refereeing I’ve seen in a long time. He looked like he was out of his depth in this game. Took far too long to make decisions and the game didn’t wait for him so that fouls were not given where they should have.
Merlin, remember when Bobby P and Reyes joined Arsenal, they didn’t like being bullied or constantly fouled either. Cash was given far too much freedom to foul Tzolis and really should have been booked when he went through the back of him. Then, the first card went to Tzolis for allegedly preventing a break. Ridiculous.
Morning all.
I’m glad I’m not alone with my thoughts on Madueke and Havertz. Both can have their moments but…
New post up.
I think the team is still finding its feet with all those changes from last season. The timing of the final passes is all out of synch hence Havertz got caught offside.
Remember last season when both Jesus and Martinelli were frequently caught offside?
No panic now but more intense training to get their acts together before Chelski game, and CL Cup start next week.
Tzolis was excellent against Man City, but what went wrong when he lost all his duels and can’t dribble past Matt Cash. Tzolis was slow in his movement and had no quick feet against Cash, who read his movements like a book. Some said he was lucky not to have a 2nd yellow card with some of his tackling.
More thoughts for Arteta at the training pitch.
But his dismal performance against Villa had open the door for Eze to start against Chelski.
Yup, he was caught offside five times, a stat which is a bit of an outlier (he only got caught offside six times during the eighteen EPL and CL games he played in last season), but sometimes it is the timing of the pass which is the issue, not just the timing of the run. Villa played a high line which offers a challenge for any striker.
He’s not a Thierry or a DB10 but I do have a high regard for him, it seems that Mikel and Julian Nagelsmann do too. But it’s always possible that your Chelsea mates know better…:)
Stuart I know that you have a high regard for Havertz but really ??? He was offside more often than Jesus usually is . He can’t win a ball in the air with a defender behind him , he falls over looking for free kicks if the wind blows near him and he misses open goals on a regular basis.
Only Madueke rivals him for a high expenditure with not enough return and strangely all my Chelsea supporting mates can’t believe that we bought both of them.
Carra on Villa vs ‘best defensive team in world football’Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher:
“I think Villa did OK, considering new players in there and who they were up against as well on the back of such a poor performance last week.
“The only thing Villa could really do was try to stay in the game as long as possible. They did that to a certain extent.
“But you’re looking at arguably the best defensive team in world football – so it’s very, very difficult.”
He was always offside Stuart..
Arteta on Julian Alvarez?
“I don’t know. That’s for the people upstairs.”
Boy! Ya’all have it in for our Kai. Maybe they screened a different game down here in NZ. He, like the majority of the team (apart from Cala, best left back in the EPL, didn’t really have their mojo going but he worked hard, showed clever footwork, earned a few free kicks, and was part of a good 1-0 win away from home.
“Absolute shocker”? Put some vegemite on your toast, Hobart.
I’m flummoxed over the Gyokeres situation, Havertz was poor tonight and on another day, certainly last season, he’d have been replaced by Gyokeres. It’s not looking good imo.
As for Gyokeres, well I guess we’ll all know this time tomorrow
3 points, Villa had no shots on target, clean sheet and so we move on to the next one.
Bruno picked out some interesting passes through the lines, I think we can use those later in the season. Gabriel was great again, Eze did some good things among the usual lackadaisical stuff, Zubi and Merino looked sharp, I wonder if we’ll see a few changes for the Chavs?
I really don’t get the Gyokeres situation. I know the season is very early, but we may have another Aubameyang or Ozil situation.
I just don’t understand what is going on with Gyokeres. Even when Havertz puts in an absolute shocker of a performance he doesn’t get to come on? If Arteta has that little faith in him we may as well sell him.
Beat the dirty s@ds, how McGinn stayed on I don’t know.
Not sure that I can take another season of this . Arteta clearly has no faith in Gyokeres and If it’s Havertz up front then heaven help us .
Clean sheet, one goal, three points. How Villa finished with eleven on the pitch I don’t know.
A sloppy 1-0 win at Villa is a great result. Lol
Great reception for Konsa.
Mosquera down with a hamstring injury, Konsa coming on.
How did Havertz miss that?
Oops!
Offside anyway. Again.
Eze was in acres of space on the left…
Crazy when Gyokeres is on the bench. I’m starting to think he’s off and the Alvarez deal is still possible.
substitutions and Havertz stays on ?
Well done Eze, Calafiori and Saka of course..
David Ornstein also has this story.
Arsenal exploring move for Lyon’s FofanaLatest from Sky Sports News’ Gary Cotterill:
Arsenal are exploring a potential late move for Lyon winger Malick Fofana.
Gabriel Martinelli’s imminent move to Al Hilal leaves a gap in Arsenal’s squad for a left-winger.
The Belgian is one of a number of options Arsenal have on their list.
He has two years left on his contract at Lyon. The 21-year-old missed out on a spot in Belgium’s World Cup squad after a difficult season with injury.
He has two goal contributions in his first six games this season.
Balogun heading to Everton for £40m..
so Eze is our new flying winger
I’m not sure we’ve even thought about a new keeper on debut.. pfff!
They have an inexperienced keeper and we sre peppering him with shots . Oh wait !
Martinelli’s pace would soon sort Cash out.. I guess it’ll be Madueke at some stage.
Get Bruno on to sort out Cash and McGinn!
Maybe Eze on left, time he produced another bit of magic.
This is painful to watch. Havertz is either offside or in the midfield.Anything that gets cleared comes straight back at us.We really need a forward on the pitch.
And as McGinn and Cash are roughing up Tzolis and then dropping like flies in a breeze we could really do with our back up left winger to come on.
we need a battering ram…where the hell is Gyokeres when he is needed. We need a more proactive midfield….Rice is more a CB than a b2b midfielder. We need a sharper mind. All first team 11 are switched off.
Thanks Andrew, Same old Gillet…
This is as bad as I can remember . Nothing in the middle and nothing up front . Havertz anonymous or offside.
Not impressed! Stodgy, turgid, slow motion football. Havertz is having an off day. Time for Gyokeres?
half time 0-0 against this shower. we are barely out of first gear
Evening Devil.
Poor first half really. Havertz looks off the pace, Cash is bullying Tzolis and it all looks a bit disjointed. Better second half I hope.
And our first pull, yellow! Laughable
So McGinn can do what he likes but we can’t pull free or back
just another manic monday. And it shows. we are crap.
Thanks for the match preview Rico.
Villa are a collection of a mottley crew. We should be beating this lot 2-0 already. Yet we are still goalless with no shots on target.
A bit disjointed a few passes going astray. Rice seems to be playing centre back, we need him higher up the pitch.
15 minutes in and Villa are crap and we are not much better
Good evening Lady and Gentlemen
Line up is good. well done Arteta for keeping the same lineup. But look at the Arsenal bench. Any player there can possibly walk into every other premier league side. Ridiculous quality and squad depth.
Evening all, just had time to read your good preview rico😃
Bit ironic my two most hated Argentinians have or are joining my two most hated teams. Was hoping both Rodri and Enzo would be in Spain this season. And Chelsea with a better goalie at last will be pretty strong.
Horrible looking stand at Villa, I do feel this match is going to be harder than many think.
No Dowman!
And a first awful refereeing decision goes against us as Tzolis hauled down….. play on!
No Nwaneri in the squad.
Hi Stuart.
Arteta took my advice, no changes to a successful defence. A wise decision.😉
Arsenal XI: Raya, White, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori, Rice, Lewis-Skelly, Saka, Tzolis, Odegaard, Havertz.
Subs: Kepa, Hincapie, Eze, Gyokeres, Konsa, Madueke, Merino, Zubimendi, Guimaraes.
Good morning Rico and all.
Me too Jm.
Galatasaray signed two forwards Rafael Leão (ex-Milan) and Goul(ex-Porto) in the last few hours…
Trossard was a real bargain and I feel sorry for Martinelli.
I don’t think that Ethan wants to go abroad again.
Afternoon Gunners,
with less than 2 days of transfer business left to do, these are the current big spenders:
Ipswich…….. £174.7 million
Aston Villa… £183.9 million
Arsenal……. £205 million
Liverpool….. £212.5 million
Newcastle… £221.8 million
Tottenham… £252.5 million
Man City….. £272.5 million
Chelsea…… £334.4 million
Fenerbache and Borussia Dortmund sniffing around loan deals for Nwaneri. Can he play against us in champions league
https://x.com/Mark_J69/status/2094174109525512522?s=20
😂😂
Good point Geoff.
Rico, the problem is a few commentators are saying the same thing as ex refs, if it hit Maguires arm then went straight in, it would be disallowed as accidently handball but because the ball hit another player then went in, it is a legal goal which doesn’t make sense to me.
It’s already in place Geoff, it just wasn’t applied.
Good one Geoff,
and yes Emery has a great big grudge – he has a big job to rebuild that team,I don’t think Arteta is big on mercy.
The rule that allowed Maguire goal to stand, needs to be fixed,
Shocking officiating though.
OOps should read trying to copy not drying
Limey, stop picking on poor Harry Maguire, you know he was only drying to copy Diego Maradona’s handball rule 😆
Thanks Cicero.
I just worry about Ben White’s knees.
Hi Geoff, any match against an old club adds a bit of spice for a manager.
Morning Rico and all.
If it wasn’t for Emery, I would pencil this in as a nice win, but I still feel deep down Emery has a small grudge against our owners.
As usual a very good pre-match post Rico, thanks.
Too soon to start messing with defensive line-ups, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
Morning Limey, thank you.
Mudryk is available on loan. Lol
I too think it’ll be tough. The Villa new signings have a point to prove as does the whole team after their battering last weekend.
Morning Rico/everyone
Great preview and interesting to ponder if anyone else comes in. Not long to go,although we could bring in a free agent after the window closes.
I make the Villa game really tough,as the media love to remind us,we’ve lost this fixture the last 3 seasons. Expect a different Villa,not just in personnel,they always increase efforts when Arsenal in town. We dropped points in all of our next 3 fixtures too.
For us,if we play like we can we should win. A big question is does Bruno come into midfield,or do we stick with MLS. Also does Konsa come in,I’d prefer to stick with a winning team,plenty of time for rotation soon enough.
Did anyone see that handball by Harry Maguire,no way does that goal get allowed if it’s an Arsenal player,no matter what weasel words refs come out with.