Daily Bits and Bobs

Cebellos deal under threat? Forget Zaha, offer £50M for a player we do need…

Posted on by rico

Morning all.

The bad news from our 2-2 draw with Real Madrid is the injury to Marco Asensio. If it’s serious and he’s out long term, it could put an end to us signing Cebellos. Rotten news if it pans out that way so fingers crossed Assensio is ok.

Mustafi and AMN are struggling with injuries too. Both are muscular and reading between the lines of the Emery press conference, I think AMN might be a bad one. If Mustafi’s is too, we’ve no right back other than Carl Jenkinson. Worrying.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=P_kbkcj2DcQ

2-0 up, 2-2, lost on penalties in our final match of the USA tour. Sokratis sent off. Eddie will be disappointed after missing two golden opportunities to win the game late on, same for those who missed their spot kicks. Xhaka’s in particular was awful.

So now it’s onto the Emirates Cup where Lacazette will come up against his old team Lyon. That takes place on Sunday afternoon.

So where are in terms of preparation was a question put the Unai Emery after the game.

This match was to take confidence, to play together with young players and give them chances. The result is not important but we want to create a winning mentality. We are working and analysing each match to improve offensively and defensively. When we were playing 11 v 11 we were playing well.

 

After the red, we preferred to play against 11 and asked the referee if we could play against 11 again but they didn’t support that chance. When we had some moments playing progressively 11 v 10 we were not controlling the game like we wanted. Ten v 10 was the same situation at the beginning. We didn’t control the match, maybe because we were winning 2-0. I think we could have taken more of the ball, kept the ball with the possession. Maybe sometimes we didn’t do that but in the transition we were very strong. In the last minutes, the young players’ impact was amazing. This moment for them, for us, was perfect. In the transition we were very good and with the ball we created chances.

There’s a lot of common sense in there because when a team surrenders a two goal lead, of course the defending is going to be question. But we’d lost Sokratis and as we’ve seen before, without him we’re not very good. We can’t even lump the blame on Mustafi this time. We need another central defender, just as we need a midfielder whose more effective than Xhaka. When we were at our best under Arsene Wenger, a lot was down to his midfield. Petit, Vieira, Gilberto and the workhorse Parlour. Edu too was an excellent midfielder himself. Our midfield unit is weak, as is our defensive unit once Sokratis, Holding and Bellerin are taken out of the equation.

In my opinion, Emery and his staff can work as hard as they like on the training pitch, hoping that it’ll all click and as a team we’ll suddenly defend a lot better but I don’t think it ever will because it’s down to personnel.

Which is one of the reasons I really hope the club don’t waste vast amounts of money on Zaha. To me it would be stupid because that £80 million would get us a quality defender, a midfielder too or certainly some money towards one.

Unai Emery can rave about the pairing of Lacazette and Aubameyang and the younger players all he likes but until we leak goals the way we do, we aren’t going to get very far…

with Leicester City looking likely to lose Maguire to Utd, The Sun are one of many newspapers linking them to Lewis Dunk for £45 million. Why aren’t we going for him? Isn’t he the kind of defender we need? Or Maguire who is highly rated by many on here.

If the rumours about the kind of players the club are trying to sign are true, I really don’t understand what they’re doing.

Catch up in the comments.

rico

55 thoughts on “Cebellos deal under threat? Forget Zaha, offer £50M for a player we do need…”

  1. sohara says:

    Yes awful news for us about Cebellos They say it’s a cruciate ligament for assencio and he will miss most of the season , doubt they will let Cebellos go now

    I was so surprised to see Jenks on for the whole game. I also thought the youngsters were SO brave to take penalties in such a big game, Reiss & Saka scoring good pens

    I thought Chambers did well, very solid at the back and he saved us many times. Good game exciting to watch, but didn’t do my getting up for work today any good at all

  2. rico says:

    Xhaka, Ozil and Mkhitaryan seem to be the players hitting the headlines. For all the wrong reasons.

    Lord help us is Xhaka really is seen as captain material by Emery.

  3. allezkev says:

    Morning Gooners
    Morning Rico

    Well it’s looking seriously like Carl Jenkinson is going to be our right back for this coming season, or until Hector is fit to return.

    With the Cellelos deal seemingly dead in the water, we shouldn’t be loaning out Reiss Nelson to anyone as we will probably need him.

    So much for the big unveiling of two signings when we return from the USA, in fact we still haven’t signing Saliba yet so maybe a bit of caution is needed.

    Fortunately Raul has a plan….

  4. rico says:

    Morning Kev.

    I’m not convinced Cebellos deal will be off as I read Asensio might have been loaned out or sold too.

    Whatever the plan is, it seems to be in the too difficult tray right now..

  5. ScottfromOz says:

    Plan?
    What plan hahah
    Nah, who knows what the club is thinking.
    Mornings Rico and and all.
    Some impressive football from our lads and the result really isn’t a concern.
    We looked damn sharp but still, we let ourselves down in the same parts of the field, as usual.

  7. allezkev says:

    Didn’t you hear him when he and Vinai did their big interview ‘We have a plan’ Scott?

    Anyway Ned, I should imagine that you’ll be fuming if the club replace the amber nectar with that beer from Camden, it’s enough to make you go walkabout… 😁

    As Rico said, it was a tale of two halves, a half of Fosters and a half of Four X…

    I’ve gotta have a cuppa… 😳

  9. ScottfromOz says:

    Lol Kev,
    Fosters and XXXX are not beers!!!
    They only call it XXXX as it’s illegal to swear on advertising 🙂
    Rico, it sure was but I think we showed enough to be happy with everything but our defence-stating the obvious, I know lol
    Forget Tierney and wipe Zaha and spend every cent we have on a CB!!

  11. allezkev says:

    Thanks for the highlights Rico, Chambers almost scored the winner!
    A good work out, but that referee, Kroos just fell over and the other foul was nothing, feck me, referees like him will make it a non contact sport.
    It seems if you go in for a 50/50 and you are stronger, the other guy just flops over and gets a free kick, it’s pathetic…

  15. allezkev says:

    That’s encouraging Rico, now let’s finalise Saliba and go get a couple of defenders, but not Tierney…

    Lennon, what a gobshite, he never gives it a rest, all mouth and no knickers…

  17. Cicero says:

    England all out for 85?????

    In the immortal words of Victor Meldrew……I don’t believe it!!!!

  18. Sohara says:

    Yes I have read that he & Saliba were having medicals today, and the deal is still on. so fingers crossed. Yes Willock was good, he did not play the full game only about 20 mins at the end .The Sokratis second yellow was not a yellow, VERY soft, but he got them both in about 10 mins, he has to be more careful, One slightly more encouraging thing for me, was in the Europa L Final, once Geroud scored we went to pieces although we had played well until then. Last night we dominated the first half and were 2 up . They brought loads of subs on second half , and then they dominated and we went 2 down and Sok got his Red., but after a time of us being awful and giving in like in the Europa, we pulled ourselves together and actually started playing better, and considering the talent in the RM team I think we did well especially with our youngsters . By the way Hazard was more or less invisible in the game

  19. Lee says:

    This Saliba deal is a bloody strange one, we need a top drawer CB now! I know there’s still time but i’m massively underwhelmed with the transfer window so far.

  20. rico says:

    Ditto Lee…

    I get Saliba deal IF we get the CB we need for now, but if we don’t, it’s a lot of eggs in one basket for the future. Unless Mavropanos is expected to be the mutts nuts, although from what I’ve seen of him so far, he’s underwhelmed me…

  22. ScottfromOz says:

    Who the hell is this blow in, Lee?
    Morning all 🙂
    Saliba is a superior signing for the future.
    I’ll compete this to when we first went for Hazard but he and his club wanted an extra year, by which time we couldn’t afford him BUT, we do need a CB now!!
    How are ya, Ol’ Blue Eyes 🙂

  23. Adam says:

    Morning Rico and all. Totally with you Lee. What is it about Arsenal under Wenger and it seems, this regime, that they seem incapable of buying a top defender or two? Are they perhaps not as glamorous as these midfield/ wingers that we have been obsessed with for more than a decade. FFS go and buy a Dunk or a Mee. Someone who can head the ball away all day long and not be drawn to it while watching it sail over his head like Mustafi. Buy a proper English defender who has played in the PL and likes to put his head and body in where it hurts. A player who won’t take shit from anyone. It’s gonna cost but that’s why we moved to the Emirates and charge such outrageous prices. Wasn’t it?
    Just go and f—king do it!

  24. rico says:

    Morning Scott, Adam.

    Must admit, this transfer window is baffling me too. If Kos goes, which I’d expect him too, our first few fixtures could be tricky to say the least.

  28. Lee says:

    All good Scotty…just don’t see any real linear improvement in the team and quite frankly the short list of who is to wear the captain’s armband is fucking embarrassing!

  30. ScottfromOz says:

    Good to hear from you, Lee!!
    Seems nothing has really changed and as obvious as our problems seem, those in charge can’t address them.
    But then, we aren’t on millions to see the obvious lol

  31. Limey says:

    Chambers must be an option for Right Back,not that I’m a great fan of his.I did think he might be sold,still might, certainly doubtful Emery rates him.
    We are crying out for new defenders, everyone can see it.
    I’d personally like a physically strong, mobile midfielder too, maybe Willock is seen as that player.

  32. VCC says:

    I’m with Adam. UE. JFDI.
    Get some defenders in and quick. Leave our forward line.
    If we have some pennies over then shove that useless plonker Xhaka out the door and get a DM

  40. Cicero says:

    Good news that we’ve got the Cebellos deal over the line, we can only hope he’s of more use than the un-lamented Dennis Suarez.

  42. rick says:

    Afternoon Rico and the house.
    The club have announced the signing of Saliba.
    I gather its 2done 2 to go.

  44. Wavy says:

    Afternoon fellow gunners and the few goodness!

    Proper hot today!

    2 to go? assuming Tierney is one, who is the other? Just asking, or have I missed something?

    See you all in the ice room😎

  48. Le Coq Monster says:

    Best breaking news of the week to me is…………………………Love Island will on twice per year from 2020 !…………………………….now that`s what you call a new signing !…………………….I`m Rico will agree with me ! 🙂

  50. rick says:

    Rico
    Ozil was driving in London this afternoon when
    he was attacked by knife welding moped thugs.
    Kolasinic was with him jump out of the car and took them on

    It is reported that they fled the empty handed
    There is a video doing the rounds showing it.

  52. Le Coq Monster says:

    Just thank f##k Ozil wasn`t out with Mustafi !…………Mustafi would have slipped arse over tit into the attacker and accidently stabbed Ozil in his good eye !

  54. Limey says:

    The most shocking thing about the Ozil/Kolasinac attempted robbery is that it was in London – a few years ago we would have assumed that was in the US,a sign of the times.
    Kolasinac is one hard man though.

Leave your comment.

Discover more from Highbury House

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading