Morning all.
Thomas Partey, Nicolas Pepe, Mo Elneny and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will all be available for our New Year’s Day fixture against Man City as Sky Sports have confirmed all Premier League players will remain in England until the 3rd of the month.
The rescheduled Africa Cup of Nations will be played in Cameroon between January 9 and February 6, 2022 and Sky Sports are broadcasting every single one of the 52 fixtures live. Around 40 Premier League players are expected to take part in the competition.
As a football fan though, are you interested in watching the ACON? I can’t for one minute think it’ll be top of my things to watch list.
As much as you or I might be glad to see the back of one or two of the players heading off to Africa, they’ve all played a part in us reaching the League Cup semi-final and getting to fourth in the league. The problem Mikel Arteta will have is who will replace the players who have often come off the bench to replace one, two or three of the starting eleven?
There are rumours going around on NewsNow suggesting AMN is close to securing a loan move to Roma. Personally, if I were Arsenal, I’d do absolutely nothing to help Mourinho, or Roma, not after their summer antics involving Granit Xhaka. If of course the reports at the time were true, which considering he signed a contract extension at Arsenal so swiftly, I wonder if the stories were nothing more than his agent working his magic. In any case, won’t Mikel Arteta need AMN to call on? Xhaka and Sambi Lokonga can’t play every fixture between now and the middle/end of February as there’s far too many.
Another player back in NN headlines is Phillipe Coutinho which is hopefully nothing more than regurgitated rubbish. Arsenal have been down the route of signing older players who come cheaply and in the main, it hasn’t worked. But, and there is a but, Barcelona reportedly want Aubameyang. 2+2=? Would a swap deal be good for Arsenal? We’d certainly get a younger player and perhaps one who has a point to prove.
Back in the real world of Arsenal, AMN is back training after his time out for testing positive for Covid-19. I read that on Jeorge Bird’s website. Lokonga must soon be back too unless the virus hit him hard. No doubt all will be revealed in Mikel Arteta’s press conference in a few days. Hopefully there’ll be no additional Covid cases within the squad.
Lastly, Thomas Partey has been talking to Arsenal Media.
It is very enjoyable, I enjoy a lot playing with them. They are good talents, a lot of people around that can play with them and they have a lot of quality in front of goal and they can score at any time, so it is a joyful moment playing with them. We feel very happy. This is a game we really enjoyed. We have had a couple of games now where the team is doing very well and performing and I think this is what we have to keep doing.
I think we are working harder, we are doing what we have to do, everyone is playing their role very well and that is the mentality that the coach wants us to play with and enjoy one the field and that is what we are doing.
He is of course, referring to playing in a team with young talented players around him. We are working harder he said, a sly dig at his ex captain perhaps but it’s true, the players have been working harder in the last few games. The fact that Norwich City believed they should have had a penalty proves how hard the team is working because it was Alex Lacazette back in his own box committing the ‘foul’. Gabriel Martinelli just doesn’t stop moving either as one minute he’s in the opponent’s box, the next he’s back in defence helping Kieran Tierney. The work rate of Tierney is incredible too, as it is with Takehiro Tomiysu. I could go through them all but I won’t. Lol
Anyway, I’ve rambled enough on a day when Arsenal should be playing Wolves at lunchtime but instead, we have to wait until New Year’s Day to see the team back in action.
See you in the comments.
Morning Rico and all
Don’t give a crap about ACON all these matches do Is increase the possibility for players to get injured for no reason.
If Arteta is not going to play AMN regularly then why not loan him out to gain more experience after all sitting on the bench will not help him or us, just look at ESR he is nearly scoring a goal per match and yet can only find 10 minutes of match time
Good morning Rico.
I’ve previously made clear my thinking on Coutinho coming to Arsenal. Not in a million years!
The only club that would benefit from a swap between Arsenal and Barcelona is Barcelona. They have been trying to offload Coutinho for about three seasons now, he went on loan to Bayern Munich and flopped, back at The Nou Camp he is a bit part player with his own reserved seat on the bench. If Barca want Aubameyang they can buy him, perhaps on the never never.
You never know. Being the player of Edu’s friend Kia Joorabchan, anything can happen.
Soon Edu will force Coutinho down our throat
Morning Geoff, Cicero, all.
I don’t think we can afford to loan AMN out unless another midfielder is arriving in January.
I’m not particularly in favour of signing Coutinho permanently, not least because of the things Cicero says, mind you Overmars had a career ending injury before we eventually signed him from Ajax and he didn’t do bad, but I accept the reservations.
We did spend a record amount in the summer and we may only have a small amount to invest this January and it needs to be spent carefully, so I guess a short term loan or two would help bridge any gaps whilst the majority of our finance goes towards a striker and maybe a holding midfielder?
Ditto Cicero, there’s experienced players and there’s old and crocked. Coutinho falls into the latter imo.
Choices if we were to have a 1 metre 72
midfielder would you give a contract to Coutinho or Wilshere ?
Neither are exactly what we want but both would be an upgrade on Xhaka but with Partey and Elneny gone it’s that position we need to supplement.
As much as we want to shift Aubameyang there is a lot more work to do before we get into bed with Barcelona’s financial basket case
If we were to go for a older cheap player to bring back for a short period then why not look at Santi Cazola but personally I would take advantage of the situation and try a couple of the younger players
Is Santi match fit ? At least with Jack he is known quantity and has been training with us for some time
I have to admit, everytime I see Arsenal mentioned in connection with Coutinho, i winced, my brows furrow and my shoulders sagg….I’m so disappointed that we are even mentioned in a Coutinho deal. It just breaks my heart.
Jack all day long Potter.
Potter believe it or not Santi is playing in Qatar, is Jack match fit from what I understood Jack is only at Arsenal to help him get his coaching certificate, as I said I would rather select players from our under 23 to fill in why our players are at ACON
Hi Rico and all,
So we will lose Partey and Elneny so we will be losing our top holding midfielder and our very assured can do a job when called on Elneny. AMN fits the holding role it’s what he does but need to improve his distribution. I see Charlie Pinto hasn’t been mentioned but to me he is probably ahead of AMN but provides more attacking play so not yet from what I know a typical holding midfielder, but kid he is a midfielder and not a number 10 then he should get the mod to start games with AMN coming on as a sub. But AMN should be the starter when Xhaka needs rest time and play alongside Pinto. We should also have Lokonga back playing but may need time to recover.
Now to Courthino he should not be considered in a swap deal but only as a loan to end of the season. He has performed in the PL and was exceptional so maybe he can gain some much needed confidence and get back to where he used to be. If he doesn’t so what he goes back to Barcelona but if he does perform well then first he would be good cheap Ish cover for ACON and he could impart some wisdom to the younger players help with skills coaching. If we decide to keep him we would have to work on a year by year basis so we mitigate any risk.
Jack trains every day with the first team Geoff, he’s probably the fittest he’s been for years.
Hi Mig. AMN distribution has been ok this season when he’s played. Certainly no worse than some of Partey’s.
Excellent result at St Marys. 1-1 and Southampton played with ten men from the 39th minute…
Points on the board , looks like our game will be quite defining.
Could be. Plenty of points to be dropped by both teams yet though, especially them as I think their games in hand are tough.
Kane was gifted his usual penalty. Happy to see the offside law being applied correct for a change.
Especially when it’s that lot…
Liverpool drop three points.
It’s all up for grabs…………..except top spot. They are almost certain to win the top prize. They football almost as entertaining and pleasurable to watch as the Arsenal did from 2000-2005.
I like Jack but if we sign him who do we drop for six months, and will ANM feel his been overlooked again and then want a transfer.
Will we really miss the players going to ACON, Auba not being picked, Elneny playing off the bench and Partey can be hit or miss I recon we will be all right with out them
I agree Wavy and funny enough, that’s the headline today. 😂
New post up now.
Morning all.