Morning all.
Ouch! That’s Maldini Kacurri challenging Raheem Sterling in training. No holding back eh but I’m sure no one was harmed whilst taking this photo. Lol
Still no sign of Ben White in the training photographs, nor Oleksandr Zinchenko or Jurrien Timber. The pictures on Arsenal.com are from Thursday’s training session so there’s still a chance one or both of White and Timber could be in the squad for tomorrow’s fixture against Southampton.
After tomorrow’s game, we have another international break and I hope a few players pull out of their respective international squads. Other clubs do it so why don’t we? Same goes for the November international break too. I know Thomas Partey has had his critics this season but on nights like Tuesday showed, he can still be brilliant. If he breaks down as many of us are probably believing is when rather than if, he’ll be a big miss. He could certainly do without the four extra fixtures Ghana will expect from him. I know it’s no different for all the Arsenal players who go off to play for their country but our midfielder is fragile. Takehiro Tomiyasu and Oleksandr Zinchenko are also frail so won’t be away with their respective countries, not even Tomiyasu who has returned to Arsenal training.
Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel, William Saliba, Kai Havertz and Jakub Kiwior have already been called up by their respective country managers and the Spain squad, which is to be announced today, is highly likely to include both Mikel Merino and David Raya. I’m sure Riccardo Calafiori will be away with Italy too.
Mikel Arteta has been nominated for Premier League Manager of the Month for September which comes as no great surprise really. A win against Totts, a dogged and determined defensive second half defensive performance at The Etihad to take a point whilst playing with ten men and then a late late show against Leicester City to secure maximum points. Yes, September was good for Arteta and Arsenal.
Also nominated for September awards is Gabriel for Player of the Month and Riccardo Calafiori for Goal of the Month after his stunning strike against Man City. Gabriel has just been a rock at the back for Arsenal and he scored to fantastic headers against Totts and City too.
Tomorrow we face Southampton, one of two clubs with just one point on the board so far this season, the other being Wolves which is a bit of a surprise. On the road, Southampton have been beaten by Brentford 3-1, Bournemouth 3-1 and Newcastle Utd 1-0. Southampton’s defence has been awful. They play out from the back but badly, often causing problems for themselves.
Manager Russell Martin said in his pre match conference that he and his players have an idea of how they can try and hurt Arsenal. But he is expecting his team to have moments when they will have to dig in, defend properly and be resilient. If Arsenal are firing on all cylinders, I suspect his team will need to show such qualities for a large percentage of the game.
Last weekend at Bournemouth, Southampton were 3-0 before halftime!
On paper, this is one of the fixtures which one might expect Mikel Arteta to be tempted to rotate one or two of his players but I’m not sure he will. In defence, he might have to if White and Timber are ruled out. I’m sure we’ll find out more later today when Arteta holds his press conference.
Catch up later…
Excellent post Rico, I expect to see pretty much the same starting XI against Southampton as recently, fitness permitting.
There’s been a lot of chat around whether Nwaneri will get a start in this game but we cannot and must not underestimate anyone as last Saturday showed, you do that at your own peril. Ethan and Myles will get plenty of minutes this season don’t worry about that!
The priority is to take maximum points from the next two games, keep a clean sheet and maybe get a few goals.
Following Bournemouth the fixtures will come thick and fast and some of them are true 6 pointers. Liverpool are showing no sign of faltering and we mustn’t take our eye off of them. Man City won’t…
Considering the injuries and fixtures we’ve had to get through the last few weeks have been exceptional, there is a steely resolve about this team, no over-celebration for the media morons to get their knickers in a twist over, the team has its business head on.
Not only is the team growing but so are the manager and his coaches. Gradually eliminating the glitches as noticed by the punditry whose hatred for us is increasing day by day.
Ok, I need to go down the butchers to get some sausages. 😉
Morning Kev and thanks.
I hope your butchers don’t refuse to serve you…..
I too think Arteta will start his strongest, try and get the goals to allow changes. I bet Ramsdale has a great game against us.
You could get a boat load and have a winter bar b que or just get some hot french bread and some hp sauce .If I wasnt in Cyprus I would be tempted to join you .
As for the saints we can expect Mr Ramsdale to have the game of his life just like Leicesters keepr did but just as much as he knows where our forwards put it they know how he reacts and the positions he takes . Should be interesting .
Our ex keepers, and there’s been a few, usually have a great game against us.
Saints defence though have been awful this season apparently.
Good afternoon rico and all.
I watched the Bournemouth v Southampton game and Southampton were really awful and Ramsdale not surprsingly doesn’t look good with such little game time .
I hope Timber is fit as he was excellent in the first half on Tuesday,otherwise I don’t see any changes either.
Afternoon Kelsey, Geoff, Limey.
I’m hoping, almost expecting us to beat Southampton tomorrow but we can’t take them lightly.
Afternoon Rico and all, we can’t afford to go into this match with a weaker team, and if we are lucky to be 3 up by half time then look at bringing in some changes early in the second half. This is our chance to add to the +goals and keep the pressure on.
It’s fine to tackle hard in training but looking at the photo above that tackle is ridicules as we could have resulted in another injury like our new player (forgot his name) a few weeks back.
Afternoon all,
When I’ve seen Southampton(just the Man United game and I think highlights of them at Newcastle) they look good at times,nice approach play but terrible at defending. You have to feel sorry for Ramsdale,I wouldn’t mind betting he is high on the most shots faced stat.
I noticed Fabio Viera on the Porto bench against Man United last,still an Arsenal player for now.
Potter, are you in Cyprus?
Where?
Does anyone fully understand the story in the daily mail, involving player Lassana Diarra where he took FIFA to court and the judge found that The Football transfer rules are deemed illegal by The EU top court. It’s a bit over head.
Here you go Geoff, from Sky Sports Kaveh Solhekol:
Analysis: This could be very significant
“It’s a complicated story. The finding that FIFA’s transfer rules break the EU’s laws on free movement for workers across the EU and also EU’s competition laws.
“It could be very significant and what’s interesting is the lawyer that Lassana Diarra used in Belgium, Jean-Louis Dupont, is the lawyer who was involved in the Bosman case back in 1995, and some of our younger audience might not know that the Bosman case was very, very important.
“It was a landmark ruling, because before that ruling, players, even when their contracts had run out, their clubs could still demand a transfer fee for them. So, in 1995, this landmark case established that players at the end of their contracts could move as free agents, so for instance Kylian Mbappe last summer was able to move as a free agent to Real Madrid because of that Bosman ruling in 1995.
Belgian soccer player Jean-Marc Bosman, flanked by two of his lawyers Luc Misson (R) and Jean-Louis Dupont (L), smiles as the European Court of Justice rules 15 December 1995 that the transfer system of players between football clubs was illegal.
“Now the lawyer involved in that ruling, Jean-Louis Dupont, involved in this one as well, the question is could this be as big a deal as the Bosman ruling in 1995. Now it depends on who you speak to. FIFA is saying at the moment look let’s keep things in proportion, this just has to do with two of our rules, which may have to change and those two rules are [firstly] if a player terminates his contract with a club without just cause and compensation has to be paid, then the new club would be jointly responsible for paying that compensation. It looks like that rule will have to be changed.
“And also, the second rule that I think will have to be changed which is about releasing international transfer certificates to players. So, it remains to be seen what a big deal this is. Obviously for Lassana Diarra it is a very big deal, and players who have been in a position that he’s been in, it could be a very, very big deal because they could sue their former clubs for compensation now.
“The big picture is players are going to get a little bit more power, players and agents are going to get a little bit more power at the expense of clubs, and perhaps FIFA, governing bodies and leagues.”
jm Polis far enough from Pafos to be typically Cypriot and not full of drunks . The owner of the local bar is an Arsenal fan that used to live in Ponders end , so Arsenal gets the big screen .
Thanks Rico,
sounds like it could be very costly to clubs and maybe the end of long contracts, i’m also guessing managers could also get involved.
I think there’s more to come Geoff. Interesting though.
New post up.