Morning all.
I didn’t watch the game but by the sounds of it, the referee was awful. How is this not a penalty?
🤔 Not a penalty apparently pic.twitter.com/6dn4OrDiPI
— DailyAFC (@DailyAFC) September 1, 2022
I read that we wasted a glut of goal scoring opportunities and Villa’s goal shouldn’t have stood. Martin Odegaard suffered an injury thanks to McGinn.
Speaking post-match, Mikel Arteta said:
I’m really pleased, really happy, especially with the performance in the first half. I thought we were brilliant, we were at it, we were really intense, we played with enormous speed, quality and efficiency and we should have scored four or five goals and the game would have been over.
Despite maintaining a perfect start to the season with five wins out of five, I hope our form in front of goal improves because against teams who defend better than those we’ve come up against so far, missed chances in the numbers we’re creating, will cost us points.
The question this morning is, can Arsenal cope with just Granit Xhaka and Sambi Lokonga in midfield for the next few weeks, assuming that’s how long Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Mo Elneny will be ruled out?
Between now and 18th September, we have five fixtures to play. Man Utd at Old Trafford on Sunday followed by FC Zurich away, Everton at home, PSV Eindhoven at home before a short trip to Brentford just before the international break. October is even more hectic with nine fixtures crammed into the 31 days including matches against Totts, Liverpool and Man City.
Signing a central defensive midfielder or box to box midfielder today wouldn’t be a panic signing in my opinion as we’ve needed that type of player for years now and even more so since it became clear that Thomas Partey was always one game away from breaking down. A bit like Kieran Tierney really, it’s been when and not if, he’ll suffer an injury. The addition of Zinchenko has been great but he fill in any gaps when he himself is ruled out through injury.
In my opinion, this has been the best transfer window for Arsenal in a long long time but without a quality midfield signing today, I thinks there’s a danger of all the great work the club has done, suffering a huge blip on the pitch. It’s easy to suggest player x, y and z could fill in in midfield, but that has an impact on the balance of the team. Ben White seems to be the most flexible as far as position goes but is Takehiro Tomiyasu ready to play 90 minutes against Man Utd? Or Cedric Soares? That’s just an example.
The names in the Arsenal transfer gossip are Douglas Luiz, Danilo and Youri Tielemans. As the day goes by, I’m sure more names will pop up, especially as other clubs are being to he same three players. Saying that, it matters not which clubs are interested if the player is set on joining one particular club.
Mikel Arteta:
We are looking at options. Obviously [Elneny’s injury] has an impact because Thomas Partey is injured and we are a bit short in that position. We do have Albert Sambi Lokonga and Granit Xhaka who can play there. We are just looking at options in the market. As I said, the club has been super supportive to try to keep improving the squad and the team as we can, and if the right player is available and we can do it, we will try.
AMN has gone to Southampton on loan for a season. The deal includes an option to buy according to reports yesterday so it’s in his interest to put his head down and work hard. At least he won’t play against us.
Enjoy deadline day, let’s hope its fruitful for Arsenal.
Ref was bloody hopeless. As was Var.But no surprise there hey.Will keys & the de ration police be out to hammer Liverpool.I mean.8th minute of added on time to injury time.It’s only Newcastle.Though not.The Hypocrite.
Hi Pete, I got that impression re the ref. Liverpool celebrating like they’d won the league will never be criticised imo. It’s different rules for them
Twelve hours fifty minutes and counting.
Melo heading to Anfield.
Luiz staying at Villa. Money talks though…
Morning Rico. It was a perfect storm for Riley. Arsenal riding too high for his liking, a desperate team lead by brutalitarian Gerrard plus thugs like McGinn and the horrible Mings. So, let’s send a weak, inexperienced ref.
Of course that clip you showed was a penalty. It was a foul in the box and when Peter Walton in the studio says it was a pen that, at the very least, should have been referred back to the ref for a second look then…
Of course their goal was a foul on Ramsdale. He was being held behind his back.
The yellow for Odergaard was a farce when viewed alongside McGinn’s antics throughout the game and the early assault by Ramsay was closer to a red than a yellow. Again, if that creepy bloke Chris Sutton thinks so and given his entirely anti-Arsenal schtick, then that’s another one.
I almost forgot about Martinez rushing out of his goal, probably with the hump, and grabbing Jesus in a headlock before falling to the ground feigning injury.
All in all a complete shit-show by the referee and VAR but 3 points courtesy in part to the man who has never forgiven Arsenal for something or other, Emi Martinez.
Morning Adam, well said. I’ve just watched some highlights and even from the short clip, it’s clear to see how poor the officiating was by all.
And people wonder why we celebrate victories? Beating 13 man teams each week is worth celebrating imo.
we have Ben, Viera, Zinny who can play as holding midfield as well. why bother? we need more strike force, even middle ranked Westham, AVilla have 2 quality strikers
Zinchenko is injured, Vieira hasn’t stepped foot onto the pitch yet and imo, is too lightweight to play in the role. We have two strikers.
Rico. I think it’s also clear now that Partey’s Arsenal career will be always be blighted with injuries so the club needs someone else in there for sure.
It was a bitty game but not as bad as many are making out..Gerrard reverted to the Allardyce method of trying to nullify a better team and thankfully he failed.
Funny how we talked yesterday about Smith – Rowe and where he would play .
If the McGinn kick has caused a bad injury then he gets the chance to make Odegaard’s return a problem. However to cement that place he will be contending with McTominay with only about 20 minutes first team action this season. Won’t be easy.
We are experiencing however a mini crisis in central midfield although I thought that Lokonga stuck to his guns , but whether he and Xhaka , who also had a good game last night can keep it up over a long period of time , I am not confident.
Any new signing will be too late for United as they will need to bed in to the work ethic of this team , so we go there unbeaten into a lions den . Having had two inexperienced refs we will probably get a Taylor with Dean at Stockley to make sure it’s even harder.
Afternoon Rico and all
Is the match worth watching when replay available.
Nice win again considering the last 2 match had ex Arsenal keepers. This should be confident booster for Ramsdale.
only seen 4 minutes of highlights and it showed ruffle 30 seconds of our goal’s and 2 minutes of Saka missing an easy goal and the rest of the time their goal.
Geoff did it show Saka’ pinpoint pass to Martinelli for the winning goal?
Agree Adam, ever since the day he was injured yet stayed on the pitch, (pushed back on) he’s been rather frail.
Yep, you can bet your bottom dollar the officials on Sunday will do all they can to stop our winning run.
Hi Geoff, the whole game is on afc.com. That’s the best to watch if you want to see the real picture.
Sky Sports reckon we’ve made a bid for Douglas Luiz.
The priority, in my opinion, is a midfield player and a left-back.
Cicero The Aussie media only talk about Arsenal when we loose.
Just watch the match, a few dubious decisions by the ref but the best part was our response to their goal, Hopefully Odegaard not hurt too bad.
Dendoncker To Villa, Luiz to Arsenal?
A lot of jokes, and neither of them is funny.
First, the refereeing. It made the result close, albeit if we got the penalty and their equalizer would have been chalked off, then there could have been a 3-goal difference between the 2 sides.
The Bellerin-saga ended ridiculously, albeit nothing short of expected. Maybe I will be able to laugh about it at some point, but now it only hurts. Edu could have been WAY more proactive and get a midfielder (Nico, Puig) or a winger (Trincao, Abde, Depay) in return, or even sacking their academy for future starlets.
Douglas Luiz seems like a panic-buying, and he will not be cheap. I would keep my fingers crossed and go with Xhaka, Lokonga, Azeez, Matt Smith and White as a makeshift defensive midfielder…
Seven hours and counting
Hector Bellerin is set to join Barca after Arsenal agreed to cancel his contract. Bellerin has will take a pay cut and has agreed to drop any claim for money owed to him by Arsenal.
This is a good move by all three parties. Arsenal get the players wages off the books and won’t have to repay wages that were cut due to the pandemic. Barca get a good but aging defender and Bellerin gets to join his boyhood club from which we poached him in 2011.
I would like to thank him for the time he spent at, and played, for Arsenal and his loyalty to the club.
Any signing by any club for any player in the final hours of any transfer window can look like a panic move, but that doesn’t mean it is, nor does it mean it can’t be a good move for both player and club involved.
And there was me thinking Bellerin only wanted a move to Real Betis.. lol
Probably a season at Barca then a move to Real Betis on another free Rico.
Probably Cicero, he’s still young.
Cicero, what are your indicators to assess whether a last minute signing is a panic move or not?
Surely, if player signings made on deadline day were panic deals, there’s been a whole lot of panicking going on every transfer window…
Playing poker now , Luiz wants to come to us , Arteta and Edu want him , he is in the last year of his contract and Villa are trying to extract every penny that they can get.
We should not let our current needs influence our bidding , we have opened the bidding at half of their valuation £ 20 million they turned it down and we increased by about 10% . Probably if we are serious another 25% to about £ 30 million should do it.
However if it goes over time then unless we go back midseason Villa get nothing. That’s the way the cards lay on the table.
Personally I don’t think that we will overpay and I think we will muddle on with what we have .
Unless !!!!!!!!!!!!
Sky Sports reckon Luiz is staying at Villa. Looks like we have what we have.
Just have to hope the three injured aren’t out for too long..
Thirty minutes and counting.
Probably the same as yours PB my opinion.
….and the transfer window slams shut..
Anti climax
Has been most years since Ozil signing
Can we still get grillitsh if he is out of contract?
Players out of contract can still be signed , but there is usually a reason why they are out of contract.
Can we still get grillitsh if he is out of contract?
I believe that he signed for Ajax
IF we don’t bring in any one and we struggle while our injured players recover, Then the club and Edu could come under pressure for allowing Edu to take Holiday’s during the transfer window.
Morning All
I disagree Geoff. A transfer window isn’t about one week and in any case, we live in a digital world now.
New post up now