Morning all.
When Mikel Arteta was appointed in 2019, he was the youngest manager in the Premier League. Heading into the 2024-25 season, only five managers — Fabian Hurzeler, Kieran McKenna, Russell Martin, Andoni Iraola, and Gary O’Neil — are younger. Youthfulness doesn’t stop there for Arsenal these days as Arteta’s right hand men are also young.
Albert Stuivenberg is 54.
Goal keeping coach Inaki Cana is 48.
Assistant coach Carlos Cuesta is just 29
Coach and analyst Miguel Molina is 31
Attacking phase coach Hussein Isa is 36.
Set-piece specialist Nicolas Jover is 42.
Even Edu is young at just 46.
A couple of Arteta’s team have been linked with a move away from the club. Albert Stuivenberg was linked with a move to Feyenoord to replace Arne Slot whilst Carlos Cuesta was linked to the managers job at Norwich. Thankfully, both seem to have said thanks but no thanks. Edu has also been in the news, with Nottingham Forest reported to be after him but even if true, why on earth would he want to leave Arsenal right now?
The oldest player in the Arsenal squad is Jorginho at 32, the youngest, Ethan Nwaneri at just 17. Assuming he’ll be listed as a first team player this coming season. Mikel Arteta has assembled a young squad in general really and whilst I’ve no idea what the average age of the group is, with Mo Elneny and Cedric Soares having left the club this summer, it is lower than last season. Obvious I know.
The transfer window seems to have gathered a bit of pace over the last few days with Chelsea agreeing a £54 million deal with Wolves for Pedro Neto, Totts have all but signed Dominic Solanke from Bournemouth for £65 million and Manchester United are reported to be going back to Everton with a bigger and better offer for Jarrad Branthwaite after learning their new signing Leny Yoro is unlikely to play again this year. Newcastle Utd meanwhile, are desperately trying to get a deal done for Marc Guehi. Liverpool appear to be close to signing a player I’d loved to have seen at Arsenal, Martin Zubimendi.
There’s little to no news about any player coming to Arsenal although that doesn’t mean Edu and his transfer team aren’t busy trying. Mikel Merino is one name heavily linked to the club but until a deal is done, it’s not.
It does look as if Eddie Nketiah could get his move to Marseille though as both David Ornstein and Fabrizio Romano reported yesterday that a loan deal with an obligation to sign him next summer could be agreed.
What about a replacement for him though should he leave? Mikel Arteta’s view seems to be that the false 9’s he has in the squad could be enough. Talking about Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, and Leandro Trossard after Arsenal’s 4-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen, Arteta said:
The three, they have that false-nine profile. I like what I saw.
Who didn’t enjoy their performances but will they be enough to challenge for the Premier League again or the Champions League? Or do we need an out and out goal scorer?
Arsenal are one of very few top clubs to have an out and out striker in the team/squad. City, Utd, Liverpool, Villa, Totts once they sign Solanke – they all have at least one.
This transfer window has been a disappointment so far in my opinion. We’ve added a defender and sold Emile Smith Rowe. So far, we’ve not added a player who’ll improve our attacking unit. I know Ethan Nwaneri is likely to be involved in our season but he’s not going to add 20+ goals to our tally and nor should he be expected to at just 17 years old.
I know we scored a lot of goals last season but we cannot rest on our laurels in my opinion. We cannot expect Saka, Odegaard, Trossard and Havertz to score more, even though they might and we certainly can’t expect Jesus to suddenly score goals regardless of how fit he looks. But, that seems to what Mikel Arteta is banking on.
Arsenal have to be better than they were last season if they’re to win the league and whilst it’s great to sure up an already strong defensive unit, it’s in attack that we were sometimes left wanting last season. Not being able to take goal scoring opportunities cost us the league title in my opinion. Not scoring goals in games which we were in total control of. Scoring five or six in one game is great, but sometimes being able to score one or two is more important.
Catch up in the comments.
Good post Rico, but why???
Why shouldn’t we expect a fully integrated Kai Havertz to score more goal, j expect him to do just that.
Martinelli and Jesus don’t have to do an awful lot more to score more goals than they scored last season, so that’s another in the plus column to me.
Trossard and Saka will deliver, they’re simply too good not to so I’ve got no worries in that regard!
Odegaard will deliver and Nwaneri will chip in a few from the edge of the box.
Ok, we have to replace the goals that Nketiah, Nelson probably and Emile scored but that in total is probably less than 10 in all competitions.
But imagine if we concede less, that’s the area with room for the most improvement, is that where we can make the most inroads into the tiny difference between ourselves and City?
What about a cheeky bid for Mudryk?
Good morning Rico.
Jesus has said that for the first time in a couple of seasons he is playing without pain. If that does prove to be the case can we expect him to score twenty odd Premiership goals in the coming season?
I would be willing to bet he won’t get into double figures by March next year.
We need a dedicated goal scorer, but I suspect Arteta will stick by Jesus.
Thanks Kev and yes, why not but I’m not as optimistic as you.
Admittedly, Jesus and Martinelli could easily improve their stats but neither have even been prolific in front of goal. I’m not a huge fan of the false 9 thing as if a team wants goals, get a goal scorer and have others chipping in.
Morning Cicero. I nearly wrote in the post that I’d be surprised if Jesus scored double figures but thought I’d be kind.
At the moment, our attacking unit is quite predictable I think and I just feel we need a different option to what other club managers will expect from us.
We’re great when things work but against an organised defence, we could huff and puff a bit.
Ouch! I fell off my chair laughing at Kev’s idea of a cheeky bid for Mudryk.
Chavs might need to sell though…
We do like a Chelsea flop 😝
The only fekking way to stop Shitty from winning the league is to convince them to buy Harry Kane.
Good afternoon Folks
Off to read the post now
Spain showed how to negate Saka in the recent Euros and you can bet that the rest of the league will have taken notes . Just because we scored goals in the way that we did doesn’t mean that we will again . That is why we do need an alternative style of player that is willing to play the last 20 minutes when things are not going well .
This gives you either a young one coming through or an old head that is looking for a decent contract and like Jorginho is not busting the manager’s door down if he doesn’t get on .
Neither Eddie or Jesus were in that category but Jesus has the ability to play elsewhere , so Eddie goes . Whether Martinelli can improve his finishing enough to take a central box role ? it’s possible but that 20 minute specialist is what we are missing .
I think everyone except Chelsea have been hamstrung with concerns about FFP.
That is why I am a little confused why we didn’t reinforce in more crucial areas – if you asked most Arsenal fans in May where the priority was would they say to bring in another defender, especially when we had Timber coming back.
One thing is it gives us depth in defence but we are still light in certain other places…
Agreed Potter.
Also, after an international competition, we might not be so lucky with injuries.
I’ve not seen much sign of PSR having an impact on transfers. West Ham, Villa, Totts, Chelsea and Utd are spending money.
Good post Rico. I enjoyed reading that.
from the last post……I posted it after you said the new post was up.
ahhhh the great Neto. The winger who in the last 5 seasons at Wolves has scored the grand awesome total of 14 goals.
Poor old Gabby Magalhaes at Arsenal, who plays Centreback, has scored a miserly 15 goals in just 4 seasons.
good morning Rico and all
I still say we don’t need an out and out goalscorer. We scored over 90 goals and had the best defence. We lost the league because we had brain farts in the games vs Villa (2), WHU and Fulham.
There is nothing better than seeing the goals shared around the team. I would rather have four players getting 15 goals each than have a single goalscorer to the detriment of the others.
Afternoon Rico and all.
I still feel we need a dedicated striker, scoring goals in friendlies is one thing, but the other premier league clubs know how to shut down certain players, but we still seem a bit slow to complete deals for players coming in.
Good Post Rico but I feel we do need an out an out striker but it appears Arteta doesn’t or he is bluffing .
Remember we have two domestic competitions as well to play and last season we got knocked of both quite early .
What about Ramsdale and Partey and Tierney . ?
We really need at least two signings and I would like to be wrong but to me Jesus is a poor goal scorer ,proven in the PL.
Afternoon Devil. Thanks.
I get what you’re saying but our tally was up because of the 4,5 or 6 we scored after the winter break. There isn’t one this year and, it’s all well and good scoring when the opposition crumble but it’s the games against Fulham, Villa twice and West Ham that were a concern imo.
I just don’t understand why we don’t have a natural goal scorer in the squad.
Afternoon Geoff. Thanks Kelsey.
I’m hoping the club have a deal or two up their sleeve yet. Three weeks is a long time left, especially if talks are already in place.
The club must have priorities. 1) The Premiership. 2) Champions League. 3) FA Cup. 4) League Cup. Arteta has to weigh up his desire to win the minor trophies against the imperatives of the two greater challenges. We know he has been reluctant to rotate players, perhaps because of lack of trust in the lowers end of his squad, but that dynamic has already been changed by the arrival of Calafiori, the near return to fitness of Timber and, hopefully, the recruitment of Merino and possibly a striker. By promoting one or two of the youngsters Arteta is putting himself in a better position to rotate and rest rather than running his first choice players into the ground.
I always suspected that Cicero was a bit of a Mudryk fan, I hope he didn’t get a bruise…
Double figures before March, I’ll take a sportsman’s bet with you on that one Cicero, I’ll even give you double figures in just the Premier League.
That’ll keep us entertained…
Spain didn’t have to deal with Martin Odegaard at inside right and Ben White overlapping as we as Saka, plus the Spanish national team was better coached and has in general better players than the majority of the Premier League…
Yea of little faith.
as well as Saka
Yes, Rico, you are 100% correct. We have seen in the Euros how Harvetz misses easy chances. We need a killer in the box:
That is someone who doesn’t need too many chances to hit the ball at the back of the net. That is a sharpshooter who always hits the target, whether he smashes the ball, places it, or dinks it over the goalie. That is a fox in the box and someone that scores from nothing. That is someone who is not so deep that he is racing into the box to get those tap-ins (we missed a lot of those last season). people just do not know the definition of a top striker, because we don’t have one.
Yes, I know Harvetz could get 20-plus goals next season, but when your team is creating tons of good chances you should score more or at least finish off games in the first half so you rest players in the second half.
Look at last season – we created enough chances to win games against Westham (H), Aston Villa (A), and Spurs (H). But we lost 2 of those games and drew the other. If you want to beat ManC you are looking at fine margins.
It has been a dreadful window so far.
Arteta has done very well over the past two seasons with the squad he has, but we are weak in right-wing, striker and a no. 8. (Merino is not over the line yet, and I do not class him as a top player, Arsenal are buying him because he is cheap). Jesus, even when fit misses far too many chances.
I think Stan Kroenke has gone back to type. it’s typical Arsenal – when glory is close, they stop spending, rather than keeping the pressure on City. There are no PSR problems here because Arsenal makes bags of money. Kroenke must go if we lose the title because we did not properly spend when needed.
That’s just it Joe, it’s the ones missed which concern me because it’s too many.
City up and running with a win against United in the Charity Shield, or whatever the woke name for it is nowadays. One all draw after ninety minutes and seven six on penalties. Didn’t watch it and no idea what sort of game it was.
Joe, there will always be restraint on club spending, it’s what P S R is designed for. We sold an excellent player, E S R, for a measly £25 million, less than half what we paid for Calafiori. So in profit and loss terms we have a deficit of about £30 million in the current transfer window.
Don’t forget we sold Biereth for £5m Cicero. 😂
If you want a player that causes havoc in the box then you are looking for another Wrighty . If you want one that blasts it into the net then it’s MacDonald , if you want one that does both it’s a Henry but they don’t grow on trees .
If your looking for the 20 minute man then It’s a kind of Bendtner / Giroud / Mariner. player , We have tried the fox in the box in the Wenger years none of them really worked out Jeffers , Suker , Arshavin , I would add Eduardo but his injury makes it difficult to criticise .
An out and out goalscorer like Aubameyang or Sanchez wouldn’t fit the system and in their prime would cost too much . Buying a ready made forward is always the biggest gamble and as much as I would like one , who is available that is prolific but willing to sit on the bench ?
I don;t know .
Ah yeah, we break even then. How could I forget that bit of business Rico? 😉
Such a player might be in the Championship. The offer of a PL golden ticket might be too good to refuse and would possibly be more than happy to get 20 minutes.
But are Arsenal too proud to sign a EFL footballer and do fans think we’re too good to be signing a lower league player?
I must admit Cicero, I was surprised you’d overlooked that deal.. 😂
As long as they can hit the ground and running, I don’t care were the player comes from, after all many a top player has change one league for another and failed to adjust
Just saying :- Smith – Rowe 2 games – 2 goals . Similar goals both scored running into the box . First one diving header this one left foot against Hoffenheim.
Don’t, I’ve not got over his departure yet..
He looks fit and very happy. I think Iwobi loves ESR being at Fulham too.. ☹️
Geoff, me neither.
New post up.