Morning to you.
Arsenal will according to The Mail, narrowly stay within Financial Fair Play spending limits, financial analysts expect, despite being placed on a watchlist by the European football governing body, UEFA. Not sure what narrowly equates to or how it affects our hopes of a winger and midfielder joint before deadline day but if it’s a choice between one of the two, it’s a midfielder for me.
It seems like Nicolas Pepe is finally moving away from the Premier League and back to France with Nice. It’s a loan deal according to Sky Sports. Fabrizio Romano suggests Pepe has taken a pay cut in order to make this move possible and Nice will cover the majority of this. AMN could be next as a few clubs appear to be interested in capturing his services with West Ham and Southampton in the mix. I hope he stays in the Premier League, only because it’ll settle a few differences about whether he does have what it takes to be a really good footballer or not.
Arsenal were one of a number of Premier League clubs to included in the draw for the League Cup last night and other than being paired against Man City or Liverpool, I don’t think the draw could have been worse for us other than being Brighton away but at least the fixture is at The Emirates. Graham Potter’s teams are usually well prepared and extremely difficult to beat so unless he makes a glut of changes, Mikel Arteta’s team are in for a tough match. I don’t think I’ve seen as many Premier League clubs drawn against each other at this stage of the competition before.
Ties to be played from 8-10 November
Leicester v Newport County
West Ham v Blackburn
Wolves v Leeds
Nottingham Forest v Tottenham
Manchester United v Aston Villa
Bournemouth v Everton
Liverpool v Derby
Burnley v Crawley
Bristol City v Lincoln
Manchester City v Chelsea
Stevenage v Charlton
MK Dons v Morecambe
Newcastle v Crystal Palace
Southampton v Sheffield Wednesday
Arsenal v Brighton
Brentford v Gillingham
So much for hoping we’d draw Crawley Town eh….
The Europa Cup draw takes place tomorrow lunchtime so we’ll know exactly how our fixtures look up until Christmas. Hectic!
For the draw, we’re in Pot 1 along with Roma, Manchester United, Lazio, Braga and Red Star Belgrade, so we won’t face any of them in the group stage. We could however, be drawn in the same group as Monaco, Real Sociedad, Rennes, Union Saint-Gilloise, Real Betis, Union Berlin, Freiburg, Nantes, Qarabag, Midtjylland, Sturm Graz and others who progress in this competition. Last night, FC Copenhagen, Rangers and Dinamo Zagreb made it through to the group stage but the rest are yet to be decided as they play tonight. Fenebahce look favourites to go through, as do Ferencvárosi TC, Malmo FF and Omonia Nicosia, not that I’ve a clue what those clubs are about. The joys of Europa I guess but I do hope the draw is kinder to us than the League Cup has been. Right the way through to the final in Budapest.
Lyon have rejected West Ham’s €40m offer for midfielder Lucas Paqueta according to Sky Sports, aren’t we meant to be interested in signing him?
See you in the comments.
Good day Rico, Brighton a tough draw? I’d prefer to face them rather than Forest, we don’t have a great record against them, Tottenham, Liverpool, City or Newcastle. I reckon we can cope with The Seagulls..👍
Morning Cicero, we haven’t beaten Brighton for a while though.
Personally I don’t care about the Carabao Cup at all. Let’s play most of the fringe players and the youngsters and see what happens. The priorities should be the FA cup, the league and the Europa League.
I’m really hoping for Tielemans and a winger. That would make us a force to be reckoned with IMO
Ditto Adk, league cup will hopefully be about squad players but Mikel Arteta took the competition pretty seriously last season. Saying that, we didn’t have Europe to negotiate.
Time to break our duck then Rico.
Let’s hope so Cicero.
Okay, but let’s keep it quiet, the cricket isn’t yet a disaster. South Africa all out 151, England 111 for 3.
111, the dreaded Nelson! For those not in the know, that’s a reference to our National Hero The 1st Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte, KB. The 111 is a reference to the fact that he had one eye, one arm and one a***hole. Not that that could possibly be mentioned by today’s woke bedevilled media. 😕
Surely you don’t believe in that old codswallop do you Cicero?
Pepe exit confirmed. 2 left to depart isn’t it?
Rico don’t you remember David Shepherd? A former batsmen (not batter) and umpire who, when the score was on 111, 222 or multiples of those, stood on one leg until the score changed.
It was characters like Shep who made the game so enjoyable both to play and to watch.
Probably just AMN and Hector Bellerin to go now Rico.
I read some were that Bellerin will be leaving but the paper work will not be done until the final day of transfer window. didn’t say why the clubs were waiting until then to sign off. I’m only guessing but I would say the other clubs involved are hoping to get him cheaper.
Does any one know how close we are to breaking the FFP rules
I remember him Cicero, and his hopping on one leg but I don’t believe it made a difference. Definitely entertaining though. Lol
Yep, AMN and Bellerin and perhaps one or two in..
Bellerin and Betis , He has made it clear that he wants to go there and is refusing any other move . Betis can’t sign him until they have sold at least two players .
From to Spanish media :
– According to Estadio Deportivo, Betis’ directors Angel Haro and Juan Miguel Lopez Catalan will inject €6.25m to help with the matter. They are only allowed to increase the club’s capital by 5% of the budget and it is only half of the €11.5m needed to register all of their players.
It means Manuel Pellegrini will be left with a tricky choice about who to register for their upcoming fixture with Osasuna this weekend.
Los Verdiblancos are still hoping on a major sale or the exits of the likes of Loren Moron ( striker ), Paul Akoukou ( defensive Midfield Ivory coast international ) and Martin Montoya ( right Back ex Brighton ) to aid their efforts to register their players. The situation is getting desperate at the Benito Villamarin.
Either that or he sits out his contract and does an Ozil .
We need a defensive midfielder…. 😜
I don’t know enough about him to say go for it , but Kolo Toure and his brother didn’t work out too bad so possibly it’s a consideration , a low cost loan swap maybe ?
Betis however qualified for the Europa league last night maybe they need to see who they draw.
Me neither. I suppose the only problem would be the ACON if/when they’re in the winter.
Group A: Arsenal, PSV Eindhoven, Bodo/Glimt, Zurich
Afternoon Rico. Is that a good draw?
Adam it’s by no means the worst, I think we should comfortably qualify for the knockout round.
Cicero. Thanks. That’s good news then.
Arsenal should have a 100% record. PSV is the only viable opponents and they only have 3 EPL quality players, and one of them may be gone by the end of the transfer window.
Bodo/Glimt P 19 W 11 D 5 L 3 F 50 A 22 PTS 38 They know where the goal is could be one of those dodgy games that we don’t take easy.
Afternoon Adam, could be better, could be worse. 😂
Like Ostersund…
Rico. I have every confidence in this team. We’ll be ok I think.
Cricket looking better, maybe the South African quicks aren’t as lethal as we first thought.
Ha ha Adam.
We had the better weather conditions this time Cicero.
There’s a new post up.