Morning all.
The chase for Mikel Merino has gathered a lot of pace. Arsenal have now submitted a bid for the player, a bid which has been turned down. No great surprise. We’re not Chelsea, we don’t just go in big and get the deal done. This is the last time Real Sociedad can get a decent fee for their player so of course they’re going to push Arsenal to the absolute maximum. David Ornstein and Fabrizio Romano have commented that the player wants Arsenal, Real have said they won’t deny him his move.
Before Euro 2024, Rafa Benitez spoke to The Athletic. Merino had a clause inserted in his contract which would allow him to leave Newcastle if a club from his native Basque region made an offer for him which exactly what Real Sociedad did.
He also said:
You could see he had class, He’s good in the air, wins a lot of aerial duels, he can control the ball, is capable of playing the final pass, and he gets there at the right time. He just needed a little bit more time.
At Real Sociedad, he once played alongside Martin Odegaard so should he arrive, he’ll have more than just David Raya to reunite with.
Anyway, with just over two weeks of the transfer window to go, Arsenal are cutting things fine but, I keep reminding myself of what Edu said. We won’t be disappointed come transfer deadline day.
This time last year, we’d already played our opening game of the season and thanks to goals from Eddie Nketiah and Bukayo Saka, we defeated Nottingham Forest 2-1 at The Emirates. Gabriel Martinelli’s speed and footwork was crucial in the buildup for our first. Six minutes later, William Saliba nicked the ball off of Morgan Gibbs-White, an exchange of passes with Thomas Partey, played the ball to Bukayo Saka. Bang, Matt Turner had no chance. Forest pulled one back late in the game to set the nerves alight but we held on…
A few facts and stats from that game from Arsenal.com:
- The victory meant Arsenal had won four of the last five opening day fixtures in the Premier League. Before then, we’d won just two in nine.
- Eddie Nketiah, who had scored 14 goals in his last 16 starts at the Emirates Stadium in all competitions, was the first English player to score our first Premier League goal of a season since Theo Walcott in 2016/17.
- This was the first time Gabriel was not named in a Premier League starting XI for us since August 2021, ending the Brazilian’s run of 73 consecutive league starts for the Gunners. Only Paul Merson (82 from February 1995 to February 1997) has ever had a longer run of consecutive Premier League starts for us.
Gabriel’s omission came as Mikel Arteta experimented with Thomas Partey at right back. Why I’ll never know but it didn’t really work, however, it wasn’t until the fourth game of the season, a home match against Manchester United, that Gabriel returned to the starting lineup. Before then, he’d had to settle for an appearance from the bench.
As much as I’ve enjoyed the break from football with the Olympics, Wimbledon and cricket to get engrossed in, not football is back, proper football I mean, I’m looking forward to the weekend to see how Arsenal kick off the new campaign.
This season will see the introduction of semi-automated offside rulings. Premier League CFO Tony Scholes has now said that the expectation of its introduction is October.
Scholes said:
We’re going to bring it in when we’re absolutely certain that it will work properly and improve things. We’ll be testing it through the first match rounds of the year, it will be working in the background. We’re bringing in a new system, a different system which is more accurate than the system which is in use in other competitions.
Good, just a shame it’s not ready for this weekend..
Catch up in the comments.
Morning Rico and all.
Rico every time I go onto your site the last 3 days a pop up appears, wanting me to join your site. so, I can read back issues.
Geoff, it could be a Russian bot
Morning Geoff, I get it too. It’s probably just a WordPress change.
Nah it’s not Russian Kev they’re all too busy digging trenches round The Kremlin.
Hello!
La Liga start today
I guess Bournemouth won’t be after Nketiah as they’ve agreed a deal to sign Brazilian striker Evanilson from Porto.
As I said before we should have taken around 20 mill mark for Eddie or we are going to get with another bench wormer as i don’t see Arteta giving him much game time.
Tbh, when I first heard that link the thought crossed my mind that Bournemouth were using it to get the Evanilson over the line.
Eddie will take us to Wembley in the League Cup…
Yes Cicero, Vlad is getting a bit twitchy and that’s worrying because when a tyrant gets twitchy we’d all better watch out. Don’t want any international incidents involving the ‘accidental’ bombing of Poland or Lithuania or Moldova and we don’t need Transnistria kicking off.
According to Talk Sports, since Arteta took over in December 2019, Arteta has Spent 600 million on 26 new permanent player plus some on loan,
If this true then it deffintly shows that Kroenke is supporting him, and why we have to win silverware this year.
If we won the League Cup and nothing else, scored 100 goals but finished 2nd in the league and had good runs in the FACup and CL would that be enough?
We could keep Nketiah rather than sell him cheaply but will Arteta use him? I doubt it if last season was anything to go by…
Same with Nelson..
Has Arteta actually signed a new contract yet?
I don’t think so, he could be waiting to see what Guardiola does next summer.
Kev I am not bashing Arteta but if now silverware comes the question has to be asked, can Arteta take us the next step, finishing in second place is fine for the club and it’s owners in regards to money coming in, and the fans are backing the manager and players and the fans are paying good money for memberships, pay tv not to mention getting up all times of the day and night to watch them, and a lot of fans including myself want to see titles,
Agro Geoff is on the war path
Rumour has it he’s signing a new contract and I hope he does. Don’t want to be going into the new season with his future up in the air.
Would be odd to build a squad as he has to then leave..
Rome wasn’t built in a day Geoff… 😝
Crystal Palace interested in Nketiah
Latest from Sky Sports News’ Dharmesh Sheth, Mark McAdam & Michael Bridge:
Crystal Palace are among the clubs interested in signing Arsenal forward Eddie Nketiah.
They have explored the conditions of a potential deal for the 25-year-old.
Palace are in the market for a forward.
Bournemouth were keen, but have since agreed a club record deal for Porto striker Evanilson.
Marseille had two bids rejected before they ended up signing Elye Wahi from Lens.
Nketiah wants regular first team football. He has three years left on his contract.
Geoff I know you’re not bashing Arteta I was just posing the question.
We all want silverware but would say winning the League Cup or FACup be enough?
Also cobber we’re not living through normal times in football are we, Man City are like something dreamed up in a Wuhan laboratory?
Kev, I rate cups as follows (1) premier league (2) FA cup (3/4) champions / european.
What I dont rate is cups like The Carabao cup ect which I believe should only be played by the clubs that finished outside of the top 6 teams.
Kev, Man City Wuhan Laboratory with Saudi money and Lawyers from around the world.
With over 100, charges win or loose in court, those trophies won in that time will always be tarnished.
Technically, the League Cup could be harder to win than the FA Cup. Both depend on the draw.
The Fa cup holds a lot family memories for me, as a 7 tear old sitting around drinking hot chocolate and eating finger food and having the mattress on the floor so if I fell asleep they would leave me there for the night, then around midnight we would watch it live on the old 16 inch B/W tv and then later seeing it in color, and if Arsenal was not playing picking another team for that match only. Just thinking about brings a smile to my face.
Happy memories Geoff.
Morning all,
I absolutely would rather win one of the domestic cups ahead of finishing 2nd 3rd or 4th. Of course I would rather win the premier league – and this could be our year.
I’m very cynical about the Crystal Palace link,most of these stories are probably put out by agents. He would be a great buy for most teams though,and available for about £30m apparently.
There has been so much talk about the Merino signing it makes you think it will happen,if it goes through last minute I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t play until after the first international break !
Talking about Nketiah of course,I wouldn’t mind if he stays anyway.
As would I Limey, a cup is a cup. It’s probably what saved ten Hag at Utd.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Eddie, Reiss and Ramsdale leaving on a loan deal. Selling them is looking difficult.
G’day all.
I think we can all forecast tomorrows starting eleven except for the left back.
Raya,
White, Saliba, Gabriel, ????,
Rice, Jorginho, Odegaard,
Saka, Havertz and Martinelli.
The question is who fills the left back slot?
Will it be Timber. who has barely played a competitive match for a year. Calafiori, who has never played a Premiership match, or Zinchenko, the most unreliable, in defensive terms, left back on Arsenal’s books. The outsiders are Tomiyasu and Kiwior.
In view of Timber’s recent injury scare, my personal choice would be Calafiori, He’s fit and has shown in pre-season that he is a calm, and capable defender.
Discuss.
I reckon Arteta will stay as close as he can to the same team as last year with Calafiori coming on in the second half.
I reckon that he will go for Zinchenko until Calafiori and Timber get a few more miles under their belts . Then I think he will be midfield back up for the slot next to Rice. He will become a first pick substitute rather than a starter.
It seems funny that ESR and Eddie didn’t get much game time, yet ESR got sold pretty easy, yet clubs come sniffing for Eddie but soon take off.
I wonder if Arteta and Edu are starting to wonder if the should have excepted the 20 or 25 mill that was offered.
I too think he’ll go with Zinchenko.
No Partey at right back though. 😝
Now that Southgate and his coaching crew have gone, I wonder if Ben White will make himself available to Lee Carsley the new England manager.
I think Partey might be right back Rico, right back in the dressing room . 😉
right back behind the goal or left back on the bus . Knowing us he will probably start.
All quiet on the transfer front .
Ha ha you two…
The Morcambe and Wise of Norfolk. If you don’t laugh you’ll end up crying.
🤣
Absolutely, I’ll be doing exactly that for the next ten months…
If the pre – season games are anything to go by Zinchenko will probably start. The other spot up for grabs is alongside Rice,for the same reason Partey has got to be favourite. No midweek games for us yet,I’ve just noticed Chelsea play on Thursday night,ha ha.
My guess is Partey with Rice too. Last chance to put him in the shop window. Alternatively, if he’s left out, it’s possibly a hint that he might leave.
Lol, if Partey ever plays at RB again, I will quit watching football and go support Swimming.
Zinchenko will definitely start ahead of Timber or Kiwior or Tierney. Kiwior still has time to leave, so we are not going to risk him. Timber will gradually take that place but till then, Zinni will be our LB.
Good to see ex-Arsenal trio Leno, Iwobi and ESR give United scare as Fulham fall to a late winner in an otherwise goalless draw.
Merino will not be in Sociedad’s squad for this weekend’s game as the final touches are put to the deal with Arsenal.
Morning Cicero, all.
The Times reckon an agreement for Merino has been reached.
New post up.