Morning all.
The Europa League draw took place yesterday and in the same group as Arsenal is, League of Ireland side Dundalk, Rapid Vienna and Molde. Well that’s a kind draw if ever I’ve seen one. Short trips on the away days are always helpful. Our first fixture of this year’s competition takes place on Thursday 22nd October when we’re away to Rapid Vienna.
Our League Cup quarter-final against Man City isn’t until December. The week before Christmas but at least it’s at home.
Home, The Emirates stadium. A soulless place these days without fans. Even so, it’s never really felt like home, not like Highbury but then that old place had history. It was smaller, fans were closer to the action, the atmosphere electric. Arsenal secured League titles there, they scrapped there, literally at times. Arsenal FC and Highbury went together like strawberries and cream. The older fans will remember the George Graham days, the ‘1-0 to The Arsenal’ days, for the much younger, like me, (lol) the Arsene Wenger early years when playing at Highbury was almost a guaranteed three points.
The Emirates is everything Highbury wasn’t. The pre-match tunnel moments are more like an old friends reunion, unlike back in the days when seldom was a kind word exchanged between the two sets of players. But that’s the game in general.
I don’t know how the winning ratios compare between Highbury and The Emirates but it certainly seems like other clubs believe it’s a good place to get a victory. It’s certainly not like Anfield, but no stadium is. Not in England anyway. Pre Covid-19 I mean of course.
We can create a fortress at the Emirates. It’s going to be crucial for the future results at the end of the season, not just for results but as well for the performance and what we can inspire, what we can transmit at home. We want to play with that confidence at home where we have to be really resilient and dominate games to impose ourselves in those games.
When was the last time Arsenal did that?
1st January this year, funny enough, Mikel Arteta’s first victory in his new job was a 2-0 hammering of Man Utd. February 16th was our next convincing home win. Against Norwich, but the rest of last season’s home fixtures and results were mixed. The performances were very up and down too. Mostly the latter.
This season hasn’t started particularly well either. Just the one fixture I know but as Mikel Arteta said, Arsenal need to be performing well at home. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll always be grateful for a scrappy win, but if Arsenal want to do well in the Premier League, our home needs to be our castle. Our fortress. The place where many clubs come in hope for a point but go away empty handed. Week after week, after week and not just on the odd occasion which seems to have been the pattern since the club moved from Highbury.
Tomorrow we face a Sheffield Utd team low on luck, perhaps low in confidence too, wondering not only when they’ll start winning games, but scoring goals too. Played three, lost three, goals against 4, goals scored, nil.
Are you thinking what I am?
As for transfer expectations before the window shuts on Monday, well Mikel Arteta is full of excitement:
I think it’s very exciting because in the end, they’re the tools that you have to be able to do your job in the best possible way. You can dream about players that you can bring in as well. You can dream how you can develop the ones or change certain positions to play, to fit in what you want to do.
I think it’s a big part of the industry. At the end of the day, these walls and the stadium and the training is great. But in the end, it’s about the people we have, the staff that we have, and the players that we have to manage daily basics.
I enjoy it.
Mikel Arteta’s transfer to Arsenal went through late on deadline day. Very late so who knows with our club, anything could happen yet.
See you in the comments guys.
Good morning Rico, are you looking back through rose tinted spectacles? Wasn’t our old home given the epithet “Highbury Library”?
In these pandemic days the only way to intimidate visiting teams is by strength and determination on the pitch.
If our midfielders are required to commit fouls, to stop break-aways, they should do it in the opposition half to avoid yellow cards.
I think “street smart” is the phrase I’m looking for.
Morning Cicero. I can only speak from personal experience. On the occasions I’ve been to Highbury, the atmosphere was superb.
Morning each.
I thought the library tag didn’t turn up until 2006 after the move to the Emirates. On the few occasions that I’ve been, I can confirm that that fans whisper hush if you raise your voice!
So, library is an excellent description of the atmosphere, most of the time!
Highbury on the other hand was a heaving mass of testoneronic induced excitement, especially on the North Bank. It was a very special place.
Hi Rico and all Got to admit I am quite happy with the draw for Europa League,
still hoping we can pick up some one to strengthen the midfield in the next day or two.
Morning Wavy, haven’t the stewards got a bit of a reputation at The Emirates too, for housing people up and telling them to sit down?
I think the fans started to quiet when the team started to drop off in performances.
I wonder how much influence new director Tim Lewis has on the clubs’ transfer business, he’s a Gooner but he’s also an accountant and he’ll be well aware of how the club has wasted a shed load of money on players in the past who proved not to be worth it?
Pepe is the most recent, not his fault of course.
Why should Arsenal be expected to loan out players to continental clubs but in reverse be expected to pay the full fee up front? We aren’t Chelsea and we aren’t Man Utd and we aren’t living in a financial La La Land, everyone is hurting and we can only spend what we can afford.
If Arsenal don’t sign Aouar, Partey or any other wonderboy in this window we’ve just got to go with who we’ve got and make the best of it…
Who knows, the failure to sign some expensive toy might just open the way for one of our young players to blossom much as Paul Merson did when George Graham failed to sign Tony Cottee back in the day? That worked out well in the end.
Hi Kev The issue I have is simply if can not afford Aouar or Partey then why waste time we should have been looking at players we can afford
That’s a fair comment Geoff.
Here’s a thought, is FFP applicable in the USA? If not couldn’t Stan give his MLS team £45million so that they can buy Partey and then loan him to us, for one season, with an option to buy next year?
Thomas Partney played again for A. Madrid today.
Geoff, it’s called negotiating, the seller asks for a fortune and you barter him down, it’s what Atletico Madrid have done to get Torrieira, we wanted a fee, they wanted a loan, we wanted his wages off of the books and both clubs have come to an arrangement.
And Geoff, how do you or me or anyone know who the club have or have not been negotiating for, because all we know is supposition?
The only reason we know about Aouar and Partey is because others have put it in the public domain it hasn’t come from Arsenal
I doubt that Colorado rapids could do that the rules in the MLS are totally different to everywhere else and although Walmart have just sold Asda I don’t think it will have any effect on Stan’s finances .
A few years ago I said to a friend that lives near Los Angeles that an Asda sponsorship made sense. and he told me that Stan’s relationship with the Walton family apart from his wife was distant and purely on a business level .
If he was going to do that sort of thing he would have done it years ago. Afterall I think it’s seven clubs now owned by Etihad who do seem to have football as a driver in their publicity whereas Stan just has money .
information :-
In 2020, a total of 208 international roster slots are divided among the 26 clubs. In 2008, each MLS club was given the right to have eight international players on its roster and each subsequent expansion club was given the right to have eight international roster slots for its inaugural season. These roster slots are tradable, in full season increments, such that some clubs may have more than eight and some clubs may have less than eight during any given season. With trades, there is no limit on the number of international roster slots on each club’s roster. however it seems that Colorado are run on the same stringent financial lines as we are because they have just sold a forward ,
Who was coming off the second-best goal-scoring season of his career, tallying 14 in 2019 for a Rapids offense that was third-best in the league. In exchange for sending him to Minnesota, the Rapids received $150,000 in general allocation money plus a 2022 second-round pick, according to ESPN. . They also made the point that he had missed a number of penalties that had they been converted would have lifted the Rapids to the play offs.
Make of that what you will , but it doesn’t seem that we will see anything coming from that direction anytime soon.
Cicero that’s a brilliant idea and because it’s so brilliant it’ll never happen. 😄
Kev I’ll try to come up with some other cunning plan. 😉
Nice one, Rico…
Looks like there’ll be no Aouar, no Partey… what is plan B? To panic buy…. Zinchenko… Jorginho….sigh!!
Plus it looks like Cavani will sign for United 😭
Thanks Sue. Looks like we’re struggling to get any midfield deals over the line. Still, deadline day is often good for a bargain..
Hi Geoff.
A bargain! Well Edu and co will love the sound of that!! 😄
How good are Everton and Leeds looking?!!
Not sure if I’m looking forward to playing them haha!!
Leeds should have been out of the game though by the time they scored.. But yep, they look pretty solid.
Reg Varney of Salford, blimey he’s older than Willian…
Geoff, to me the primary bit of business was getting Aubameyang to sign again and the club did that, we also got Gabriel and that was good business, I’m happy with that and yeah it would be nice to have more but we’ve got a decent squad as it is and a very good manager who has made us competitive again. There’s a lot to be positive about Arsenal when you consider where we came from and I’m focuses on that rather than some negative spin from click bait sites.
Have a few tinnies and enjoy watching this squad evolve.
According to your favourite Jorge bird , Balogun is training with the first team . Good news Kev
Very good news. Hope he’ll have a change of heart and stay.
Kev Arteta all ready said we are a fair way behind the man city / Liverpool so by getting Auba to extend his contract is fine but so far 3 games no goals not good enough from Auba and we sold a good loyal keeper for cheap at the moment I can not see us improving from last season I hope I am wrong Let’s hope in the final moments of this transfer window we can pick up a good midfielder
Geoff, did you get out of the wrong side of bed?
New post up now