Morning all.
Have you seen the “All Or Nothing – Arsenal” teaser yet? Me too and it looks spicy. The two minute clip doesn’t give too much away but I’m sure the series, which begins broadcasting on the 4th August on Amazon Prime, will. Was I surprised to see Mikel Arteta so animated, absolutely not.
Respect, commitment and passion. These values held by our manager are non-negotiable so now it’s quite clear why certain players were moved on. Not that I believe there are many Arsenal fans who need the rationale behind those particular departures to be confirmed.
Players will always come and go at Arsenal but finally, after a few years of things seeming a bit too relaxed at the club, Mikel Arteta, with the backing of the board, has instilled discipline and accountability. It’s simple, get with it or get out. Unai Emery tried it but he was at the club at the wrong time in my opinion and with the wrong people around him. But that’s history now.
Arsenal’s disappointing finish to last season is history too but in between the start and end to the campaign, there were a number of good performances. Despite losing the game, one of the best was against Man City in my opinion. The awful officials on the day didn’t cover themselves in glory and had they made better, maybe more honest decisions even, the result would have been quite different but as far as Arsenal’s football goes, certainly pre Gabriel’s red card, that’s the level we need to see much more of this coming season. If Arsenal could play like that back in January, they can certainly play better having made the additions the club has already made this summer. Even better once Oleksandr Zinchenko has made the switch to Arsenal from Man City.
City’s Rodri has spoken to Sky Sports, said he and his team-mates are happy for Zinchenko:
He’s been great as a team-mate, as a player. He deserved the best and we are going to miss him, but this is football, it continues and new players come in – we are happy for him.
Probably not as happy as a lot of Arsenal fans will be once he’s signed up. Pep Guardiola and Kyle Walker have also wished their player good luck so I think it’s safe to say that The Sun newspaper were being mischievous yesterday with their story about Zinchenko changing his mind.
Who or where next do Arsenal target this summer? A midfielder, striker, defender or do you think we’ll have a strong and deep enough squad to really compete with the clubs who finished above us last season? One of which is Totts of course and they’ve strengthened their numbers with six signings through the door already.
Chelsea have been pretty quiet so far but I suspect that’ll change before long, especially as they’ve said goodbye to a number of players.
Lukaku – loan
Charly Musonda – free
Antonio Rudiger – free
Andreas Christensen – free
Danny Drinkwater – free
Jake Clarke-Salter – free
There’s a whole lot of experience in there and not one penny has been made. Just saying.
I wouldn’t mind a Lukaku kind of player at Arsenal. Not his ego etc but tall, physically strong and someone to give the team something different up front when we need it. There must be a player out there somewhere just waiting for Edu to call. A midfielder too..
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico and all
Just watched the fires around England and other countries on the news, Take care and keep safe,
We had a lot of bad decisions made against us last season but at the same time due to injuries or lack of players and not to mention stupid red cards, we need to take some blame as well, on the bright side hopefully this season we will have good back up players in major area’s especially in defenders when we need to hold on to the lead in the dying minutes.
Morning Geoff.
We seem to be getting the defence covered but the midfield is still a concern imo. If Partey and Tierney are injured at the same time, we could struggle.
On behalf of the club (I would like to express) gratitude for the effort, how they behave on and off the pitch. It was nice with Alex yesterday because we could say goodbye properly,” Guardiola said at a press conference.
“Unfortunately with Raheem (Sterling) and Gabriel we could not do it because it was the summertime, but yesterday we could say goodbye to him and (he can) move on to Arsenal.”
Morning campers, it was over 100 Fahrenheit where I am yesterday and it rained early hours which was a relief, but if those of a certain age can recall 1976 as I do then we didn’t have any rain for two months and nobody spoke of global warming or a carbon footprint (a term invented by BP for PR) back then in the days of common sense we spoke of drought. Ah the good old days!
Apparently there was a large flare off of the sun over the past few days which often throws a bit more radiation our way (radiation = heat).
And for those who think the end is nigh we had temperatures of up to 98F back in 1911, it happens…
Morning Rico good post, Zinchenko to Arsenal, can it actually be true, but what about the City ‘insider’ Martin Blackburn, can he possibly be wrong???
Wonders never cease!
Morning Kev, had a similar conversation here about 1976. All I recall is it was a fabulous summer holiday from school… 😂
Sounds to me like he’s wrong, can’t see Pep making such a public comment otherwise..
I well remember the summer of 76, on one particular day I had to drive down to London for a long and boring series of employee Interviews. Then home again via the A11, at that time single carriage way for it’s entire length, M11 still a distant dream, when I got home we popped our young son next door to our neighbour and drove over to Waxham for swim in the delightfully cool North Sea. Bliss!
Sunny and warm here today, 26 degrees with a cooling south-westerly breeze.
On Zinchenco, I’ll happily wait a day or two for the official announcement. Thanks for the post Rico.
As long as he signs Cicero, I can wait too. I doubt he’ll face Chelsea anyway.
Interesting interview with Xhaka on EPPN.
https://youtu.be/B8C_tjwCrDY
That was obviously Junior School Rico 🙂
Nursery Kev. 😂
Very good Obi, Granit seems a really level headed and honest guy.
Although he forgot about Unai. 😆
Of course Rico 😄
Has Zinchenko signed yet Kev, I’ve been out. Lol
Who knows Rico?
Martin Blackburn probably knows
That I very much doubt Kev. Lol
Watching Orlando vrs Arsenal; surprisingly the stadium is electric. After a rain delay the stadium is still packed. The Arsenal bench is stronger than the starting lineup.
ARS 1- ORL 0. Martinelli on a deflection.
The Gold on Black kits are awesome.
Tavares definitely needs to go, at a minimum on a loan, for 2 years. His positioning is poor, decision making is horrible and vision terrible. The guy doesn’t sense danger at all. I know it’s preseason but a lineup with Tavares, Lokonga and Pepe is hard to watch. Lokonga is playing in front of Elnery and Natan-Niles but I think he has touched the ball 2x in 37 minutes.
Good interview with Xhaka shame he has brain fades on the pitch
Hi all,
Zinchenko’s announcement must be immanent with Pep saying good buy and that he’s going to us in his interview yesterday, Zinchenko training with us in our kit and sitting with Edu at the game last night.
I still feel we are short in Midfield and the players we have as back up will not be good enough. A few need loan’s and to be sold. Perhaps Arteta is converting Odegaard to a number 8 but last season when Odegaard came back he fouled players in dangerous positions.
Morning all.
New post up now.
Today I reckon Brad.