Morning all.
It’s bonkers really as just eight games in, one only has to look at the sports pages to find ex footballers and pundits saying that Chelsea and Manchester Utd won’t finish in the top four, Liverpool won’t challenge for the title, Totts challenge will fade and die and Man City will come roaring back to challenge Arsenal for the title. Poppycock! Weren’t Arsenal bottom of the League around this time just a couple of years ago before shooting up the table and finishing just outside the Champions League places? Both Chelsea and Utd are mid table and there’s still thirty fixtures to go. The only thing we can be sure about is 19 of the clubs in the League aren’t going to be crowned Champions and this time next year, 3 of the current clubs will be playing their football in the Championship. The rest is just guesswork and my guess is that Man City will still be the team to beat.
Admittedly, Totts and Arsenal have started this season really well with just a couple of goals scored dividing the two. City have suffered a couple of defeats which is always good to see, especially as one of them was against Arsenal but over ten months, those with the deepest and fittest squads will benefit the most.
When all are fully fit, Arsenal have a very strong and deep squad although our striker options still concern me, but City have a strong and deep squad too, probably stronger and deeper than ours. However, they’ve just shown that without Rodri, they can struggle, just as we did when Saliba was out. Totts don’t have European football to worry about which is often said to be a help but I’m not so sure it does, especially when/if that club is knocked out of the domestic cups. Fulham have already knocked Totts out of the EFL Cup so for them, their focus is on just two competitions. Man City are out of the EFL Cup too. We however go to West Ham on the 1st November when hopefully, Mikel Arteta will be able to field a ‘second string’ side.
International football takes centre stage for the next ten days or so and for Arsenal, that means a lot of players are on their travels:
Declan Rice, Aaron Ramsdale, Eddie Nketiah, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Martin Odegaard, David Raya, Kai Havertz, Thomas Partey, Mo Elneny, Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Magalhaes and Karl Hein.
A painful big toe, yes, I’m being serious, is the reason given for William Saliba withdrawing from the French squad. Brazil manager Fernando Diniz named his squad for this fortnight when Gabriel Martinelli was still injured so like Saliba, he remains in north London, as has Leandro Trossard who withdrew from the Belgium squad after picking up an injury against City. I’m pretty sure Jorginho hasn’t been selected for Italy either. Bukayo Saka though has definitely stayed at home which means two weeks of rest and recovery which I’m sure he’ll be glad of.
Next up for Mikel Arteta’s players is Chelsea away from home so let’s have a look at who they have away on international duty right now:
Nicolas Jackson, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Mykhailo Mudryk, Djordje Petrovic, Ian Maatsen, Malo Gusto, Armando Broja, Levi Colwill, Conor Gallagher, Cole Palmer, Lesley Ugochukwu and Noni Madueke.
Numbers wise, it’s similar. Quality wise, that’s subjective I guess but it’s fair to say that Arsenal are a few years ahead under Mikel Arteta than Poch is with his multimillion pound squad. It’s just a shame that the last two fixtures have seen them pick up a couple of wins and with it, probably confidence too. Still, we’ll see a week on Saturday.
Fingers crossed that if any Premier League footballers suffer injury during this international break, they’re not from the red and white side of north London.
Catch up in the comments.
Someone else who is totally ignorant of the facts. A quick look at the website transfermarkt will tell you arsenal have 25 players in their first team squad inclusive of 3 keepers so 22 net outfield players. City have 24 players inclusive of 4 goalkeepers, so net 20 or circa 10% smaller than arsenals. Talking lies destroys the premise of your arguments.
Si, which part of you missed “probably deeper and stronger”?
Why the hostility, no need really..
And a cursory glance at transfermarket says that the City squad of 24 is worth considerably more than than the 25 squad at Arsenal , which certainly could be construed as stronger. £1.26 billion to £ 1.10 billion a considerable difference whether their figures are American or English billions.
The auther is correct. Citeh have a stronger squad.
Morning Rico and all,
Rico I agree you Man city do have a deeper squad then us, after all look at there bench players, and most of them would be in the starting line up at other clubs,
It Doesn’t really matter how many players or what they are worth, to me it’s more about how well the players can work together and that includes the bench players fitting in when needed, followed by managing injuries.
The way I look at the table is simple, as long as you are InTouch with the top 4 teams by the start of January you are a chance of winning the league.
I blame the parents Rico, not teaching their kiddies to be polite and respectful. 😕
Morning Geoff, Potter, Cicero.
City’s depth is probably stronger than most clubs in the PL but then it should be considering the amount of money they’ve spent over the years. We’re catching them up though.. lol
Ha ha Cicero.
Good morning Rico and everyone, It’s been a long while.
I share some of your sentiments/predictions for this season but I feel Man City though in contention to win the Premier league are not likely going to win it due to the massive success of last season.
You can almost smell the fatigue coming from the mancity squad(this is not to take away our brilliant performance against them) but I think the league is between us(favorites) mancity and Liverpool.
I feel we have enough squad depth for the season except if Arteta sees the need for an upgrade for Nketiah(which I’m fully in support of). Ivan Toney is definitely the man for the job as he will be coming in hungry to prove himself.
Also have you considered us player Kai as our main striker? I think he will really thrive there.
So according to Howard Webb, Michael Oliver got it wrong by not giving Kovacic a second yellow for his assault on Declan Rice and that he “would not have been wrong” to give the player a straight red for his earlier tackle on Martin Odegaard. So will we see Oliver stood down for the next round of Premiership games? Don’t hold your breath!
So Howard Webb has admitted that Michael Oliver was wrong for not sending off Kovacic on Sunday.
According to Webb, Oliver should have shown Kovacic a second yellow for his tackle on Declan Rice and said the official “would not have been wrong” to issue a straight red for his earlier tackle on Martin Odegaard.
Will we see Oliver stood down for the next round of Premiership matches? Don’t hold your breath!
Cicero, Just testing.
Morning Mexy, good to see you back.
After Havertz air shot a couple of weeks ago, the thought of him as our striker is a scary one. Lol
But I do think we’re lacking a presence up front. Jesus and Nketiah are too similar in build imo. I like Jesus but find his constant going to ground frustrating, if not annoying.
Cicero
Howard Webb has admitted Michael Oliver was wrong not to send off Mateo Kovacic during Manchester City’s Premier League defeat at Arsenal.
Webb, the head of Professional Game Match Officials Limited, also broke his silence on the Liverpool offside goal fiasco at Tottenham but did not offer an apology.
According to Webb, Oliver should have shown City midfielder Kovacic a second yellow card for a scything down Declan Rice on Sunday. Webb said the official would not have been incorrect to issue a straight red to the same player for an earlier tackle on Martin Odegaard.
Webb analysed the controversy during Tuesday night’s episode of Match Officials Mic’d Up amid mounting calls for him to stop Premier League referees moonlighting in the United Arab Emirates or Saudi Arabia.
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Dissecting Kovacic’s tackle on Odegaard, Webb said the video assistant referee would not have intervened if Oliver had brandished red.
“This is clearly a poor tackle and I’m pretty confident if a red card had been given by Michael Oliver on the day, it would’ve been a very straightforward ‘check complete’,” said Webb.
He added: “When he reflects on it, he’ll realise that the second one should have been a yellow card as well, which would have seen Kovacic sent off for two yellow cards, having been given the benefit of this particular decision here, which was borderline, the first one.”
😄😄😄@Rico.
Jesus isn’t causing as much havoc as I would have loved him to..
If you don’t trust Kai then Ivan Toney it is 🙂
Tell us something we don’t know Howard Webb! Oh, and try telling the idiots who operate VAR.
I wish we’d have kept Balogun Mexy.
Same here @Rico. As much as I would have loved us to keep him he was impatient, he would have gotten some decent gametime already if he had stayed.
But was he Mexy? The media do like to stir things up.
I think the evidence suggested it, him hurriedly liking posts from clubs he was linked to, I think AC Milan I think, did more than just like I really can’t remember
Maybe Balogun didn’t want to stay because his seen how little game time ESR has been given and didn’t want to be in the same boat. I know Arteta has said ESR has been injured and he didn’t want to rush him back but at the same time why pick him if you had no planes to play him
I guess we’ll never know for sure.
Cicero
Sorry for the duplications, the earliest comments just disappeared. The one @ 9.28 was taken from The Telegraph.
I found them in moderation Cicero, spelling knocked them out. Lol
I wondered where they’d gone.
Good morning all.
Cold, wet and windy here today, winter draws on. Or is that winter drawers on? 😉
I wonder if Ramsdale will get to start for England tonight, he needs some minutes to avoid rustiness.
Morning Cicero.
I hope so re Ramsdale, why not too considering it’s a friendly.
Had he not been left out by Arteta he might have done . However not having played for some time his career is at a crossroads.I won’t be surprised to see him leave in January.
I would not be surprised to see Arteta sell some of our favorite players in January to make way for a true striker to come in.
I would also like Arteta and the coaching staff work with our players (Jesus) who go to ground to easy.
According to Balogun he has claimed Arteta wanted to keep him but was overalled by people higher up at the club. However, he did name who it was.
Morning guys.
I’m not convinced Raya is the better of the two. Different yes, but better?
New post up.
Just to refresh the site