Morning folks. A quick Friday update for you.

Mikel Arteta met the press yesterday ahead of Saturday’s trip to Burnley. Most of it was quite run of the mill, although I did like his response to reports that he’d promised Bernd Leno he’d pick him for the North London derby, saying:

I don’t know where they are coming from, but they are ahead of me! I think I am the one who picks the team at the weekend and sometimes I read things that I haven’t decided yet. So they give me ideas at most, but nothing else because I haven’t made a decision for Saturday, so you can imagine the North London derby!

And on reports of a Leno bust-up:

No, that’s not true. He can be frustrated but he was top with his team-mates and in team training. That’s not true.

As I said yesterday, it’s almost as if someone wanted to make a mountain out of a molehill, perish the thought. I think we’ve got enough mountains to be going on with as it is anyway. No more mountains. We need to lower the topography of our geography, or something. Some mounds, a few hillocks, perhaps we could go as far as a rugged promontory now and again, but some flat earth would be lovely.

Please note: I mean actual flatness, not that the earth itself is flat. That’s ridiculous. The simple fact is that the people who believe that nonsense have organisations chock full of members, and not one of them has attempted to prove the theory by … just going to the edge, and taking a picture. There isn’t even a single martyr for the cause, willing to walk all that way, then jumping off – “Look ma, I’m in space!” – what a bunch of timewasters.

Speaking of time, and how much of it we’ve had between games, Arteta was asked about Arsenal not being in Europe, and whether or not it was a motivation for him and the players:

One hundred per cent. I don’t want to be sitting there with Arsenal being out of those competitions. We have the focus and the trigger is there.

It hurts a lot. In the last few days, it’s hurt to put the TV on and see those teams and not seeing Arsenal there. It was painful.

It seems obvious, and it is, but it’s almost impossible to think of a scenario where Arsenal are out of Europe again next season and Mikel Arteta is still in charge. I say almost because football (and this club) can be weird, and you can’t categorically rule anything out, but if there are performance targets for the manager this must surely be a fundamental one.

I also quite enjoyed when Arteta was asked if he saw light at the end of the tunnel after our bad start to the season, and he replied:

I can really see the light. I’m telling you I’m very positive most of the time. I’ve seen the light and I can see bright lights. There can be bumps in the road within that light, but I can see a lot of light.

I know he’s talking about things brightening up from a place of darkness, but it works as a near death experience too. Sometimes people come back from that place with a new perspective, a new outlook, and if the light gets brighter and results improve, perhaps that will become apparent over the course of the season.

Right, not a lot else to tell you this morning. The reality is that less Arsenal means less ‘content’, if you like, unless you want to start getting completely meta and you start doing stuff about other Arsenal ‘creators’. Frankly, I’d rather pull out my own teeth than go down that road, so let’s leave it here for this morning.

There is a Burnley preview podcast available for you on Patreon right now, and I’ll leave you with a brand new Arsecast in which I talk ‘Let it flow’ and the biennial World Cup with Rory Smith of the New York Times, and there’s some Arsenal chat with Andrew Allen. Back tomorrow with a full preview of the game, and all the usual match day stuff. Until then, take it easy.

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The post Arteta on Leno, no Europe, and seeing a light … appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Welcome to another episode of the Arsecast – the Arsenal podcast.

On this week’s show I’m joined by Rory Smith of the New York Times to talk about the new edict to referees from on high for them to ‘let it flow’. Is this going to lead to a rise in injuries as players push the boundaries, realising they may not get the kind of punishment they did before. We talk about the underlying culture of physicality in English football, how this is not a new thing – something Arsenal fans know only too well – and the way that refereeing and officiating appears to have a make it up as you go along element to it. We also chat about the proposal to make the World Cup biennial.

After that it’s some quick Arsenal chat with Andrew Allen as we face a non-European season, and how we have to make that ‘advantage’ count, particularly for games like the weekend trip to Burnley.

Follow Rory @rorysmith : Follow Andrew @aallensport

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The post Episode 645 – Refereeing fluidity appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Among the reasons / excuses / mitigating factors of a miserable first three games of the season for Arsenal were, not just the number of players unavailable, but the calibre of players unavailable. Thomas Partey and Gabriel missed all three of those matches, Ben White missed two, Lacazette missed two, Aubameyang one and 3/4.

I would suggest it wasn’t just the calibre of player that caused issues for Mikel Arteta and Arsenal but their positions. They are all central players, Arsenal had all their right-backs, left-backs and wingers available for the opening three games. By the time the Norwich game came around, the spine of the team looked very different.

Arsenal, Zone 14 Entry Passes – Brentford vs Arsenal

Did I make this specifically for @YankeeGunner? I prefer not speak. pic.twitter.com/Yk2C7gOPtm

— Scott “says soccer” Willis (@oh_that_crab) August 16, 2021

While Thomas Partey was eased back in from the bench, Arteta made an unenforced change in goal with Aaron Ramsdale replacing Bernd Leno. A lack of centrality was one of the team’s fundamental issues last season. For the first half of the campaign, they played without any kind of number 10 and it showed in the results. Thomas Partey was signed very late in an extended transfer window and subsequently struggled for fitness.

The ideal method of attack is to use central zones because, well, the goal is pretty central isn’t it? Teams use width because central zones are usually well guarded, going wide is a means to stretch teams out of shape so that you can eventually get into the middle. For large chunks of last season, using the flanks was Arsenal’s Plan A, B and C. They had little to no presence in the centre.

Arsenal just abandoned zone 14 entirely in the second half, lol #BHA 0-1 #ARS (via @StatsZone): pic.twitter.com/rhw3MGfCdq

— Back in my day we had 7am kickoffs (@7amkickoff) December 29, 2020

The returns of Gabriel, Ben White and Thomas Partey, as well as the signing of Martin Odegaard ought to go some way to fixing this for Arsenal. I would also argue that Aaron Ramsdale was signed with this purpose in mind. Ramsdale played more long passes than any other Premier League goalkeeper at Sheffield United last season.

This caused many to ask why Arsenal would sign a goalkeeper with a penchant for long kicking when playing out from the back is such a big part of the coach’s philosophy. I always felt Ramsdale’s long kicking was the point- in the day and age of advanced data, a club does not accidentally sign someone with these attributes.

This is the sort of pass that Arsenal don’t really get from Leno. Will be interesting to see if Ramsdale can produce it regularly against better teams

pic.twitter.com/YB2JPMI3Uj

— Sam Dean (@SamJDean) August 26, 2021

Arteta trusted David Luiz at centre-half and when Luiz’s contract expired, he signed the defender that maps most closely to his passing range in the Premier League in Ben White. Luiz wasn’t considered useful because he was tippy tappying around the edge of his area, his superpower was the big, booming diagonal ball that travelled 60 yards.

Long passes from the back are also a key part of Arteta’s philosophy. The whole point of playing out from the back is to invite teams to squeeze up the pitch and press. Having a goalkeeper that can drop the ball over their heads when they do so is pretty useful. It’s why Manchester City bought the foremost exponent of the art in Ederson.

It seems that Ramsdale gets more emphasis and more distance on his long kicks than Leno, who elects to put lots of backspin and loft on his long passes, which means the ball travels more slowly and takes longer to collect. It’s a small sample size, admittedly, but look at the difference in distance between Ramsdale’s distribution against Norwich and Leno’s against Brentford.

Longer passes put greater stress on defences so even if they are not completed, they open up avenues for counter pressing the opposition high up the pitch. It’s really an updated version of the “playing the percentages” theory espoused by coaches with a preference for long-balls and competing for second balls and knockdowns, which, though not to everyone’s taste, is an effective way of playing (as Arsenal found to their cost many times through recent years).

Gabriel is not famed for his distribution from centre-half, particularly. The way I look at the partnership between him and White is that Gabriel will very much be the bad cop, dirty shorts defender, with Ben White as the ball-player. However, again, look at the difference between Gabriel’s distribution against Norwich compared to Pablo Mari’s against Brentford.

Gabriel passed into central zones far more often. Granted, this was partially due to the presence of Martin Odegaard and the absence of Granit Xhaka who sits in that left half-space and therefore impacts the distribution pattern of the left centre-half. Odegaard is crucial to Arsenal’s need for centrality, even though he drifts to the right half-space, when he does, he usually looks to come in-field and it balances off Arsenal’s tendency towards using Tierney on the left.

At this stage of his development, I prefer Smith Rowe in the left wide-forward position. I think he is the sort of player adept at creating wide overloads, while Odegaard has more of the natural qualities you would expect from a 10. Odegaard’s role is especially important given that Aubameyang does not relish dropping deep and joining in with the build-up. It puts extra onus on Odegaard to be present in that area and link the midfield and the forward line.

He likes to take the ball on the right and move in-field, with an overlapping run from the right-back used as a decoy. It’s worth keeping an eye on how the Norwegian’s relationship with Bukayo Saka develops. When Saka plays on the right, he too likes to receive the ball there and make knifing runs in-field. There is a fine line between getting your good players close together and combining and them getting in one another’s way.

That said, Arsenal were still missing something through the centre against Norwich until the introduction of Thomas Partey in the second half. His pass to Saka in the build-up to Aubameyang’s winner was the game breaking moment. Not only was it a sensational vertical pass but look at the position of Odegaard, attracting Norwich players towards him and opening up the passing lane.

This is exactly the kind of central move Arsenal did not have in their armoury last season or for the first three games of this season. Odegaard drawing opposition players away while Saka quietly drifts in-field from the right- this is exactly the kind of move Arsenal will need to be able to repeat throughout the season to increase their attacking capability.

The partnership between Partey and Odegaard will be critical in this respect, whether it is through combinations, Partey finding Odegaard in central spaces or Odegaard drawing defenders away so that wide players can drift in-field. In this scenario, Aubameyang’s disinclination to join build-up doesn’t matter and he is able to simply score a tap in on the goal-line at the climax of the move.

Arsenal’s prospects of a good season rely a lot on the fitness of Thomas Partey. Albert Sambi Lokonga is a promising prospect but, at this moment in time, nobody else in the Arsenal team has that pass. Ramsdale and Gabriel can add some flourishes to Arsenal’s central play, White, Partey and Odegaard really hold the keys though.

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The post Centrality appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

The lack of midweek action is going to be an issue this season, because things are going to feel really slow.

When you play once a week, there are benefits which should become apparent during the season. The players should be fitter, suffer less fatigue and injury, and hopefully that will prove beneficial. It gives the manager more time on the training ground to drill his team, so we should be better prepared and more organised. But for fans, it means twiddling our thumbs on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays when we’d much prefer to see the lads out there (especially on not Thursdays!).

At a club like Arsenal, the lack of football doesn’t mean a lack of scrutiny. We’re still a club that generates clicks and eyeballs, and all that jazz, so the chances are the gap will be filled with all kinds of spurious stuff. Like the reported Bernd Leno ‘outburst’ at training yesterday where apparently he shouted at someone because Nicolas Pepe didn’t get a free kick in a training game they had.

Wow. This is cutting edge stuff. Having played football my entire life, 11-a-side, 5-a-side, 6-a-side, kick-arounds with mates, I have never heard of a footballer shouting because he feels a teammate was fouled and said foul was ignored. That must mean that Bernd Leno is ready to fight everyone with cutlasses and tear the very fabric of the club asunder. Well, this is what you get if you’re not playing FC Karl in the Europa League and you drop a player who hasn’t been at the top of his game lately.

In seriousness though, another aspect of the lack of European football is keeping players happy. Let’s imagine this is a ‘normal’ season for Arsenal, one of the 25 consecutive years we had European competition, and the manager makes a decision to bring in Aaron Ramsdale. Chances are that Droppy McDropface (Leno), then plays in the midweek game. It gives him a chance to impress again – although you’d hope that he wouldn’t be too troubled by FC Karl’s star striker (also called Karl) – and there’s also less time for any bitterness towards the decision to drop him to fester.

The Europa League group stages, in particular, were very handy for keeping everyone involved, and as we have seen in recent years, for blooding youngsters. Without that, it’s more complicated. How much playing time are young strikers like Flo Balogun and Eddie Nketiah going to get this season? The latter really should have departed, but perhaps that ankle injury he sustained in pre-season didn’t help matters, and the former – having started the opening game of the season against Brentford – didn’t even make the bench for Norwich.

With Premier League points at an absolute premium this season, there’s little room for a manager to just throw on fringe players, unless the situation allows. If we’re winning comfortably (a novel concept I know), you can do it; if you’re desperate for a goal, you have do it; but it’s still just three subs from the nine you can name on the bench, so 66.66666% of your subs are going to be disappointed every week. Against Norwich we brought on Thomas Partey and Emile Smith Rowe to boost the attack, leaving Alexandre Lacazette and Gabriel Martinelli without a sniff of action.

How does someone like Balogun get the minutes he needs at his age? A loan move is the obvious answer, but that’s not something that can happen until January now. A run in the League Cup would give him some playing time, depending on who we draw IF we get past AFC Wimbledon, but without Europe we have to take this competition more seriously. Rather than have four competitions to get involved in, we only have three, and if we get more serious opposition, that’s going to be reflected in team selection.

As the season goes on, the lack of playing time for some is going to a thing that Mikel Arteta and his staff are going to have to deal with. Players want to play, and the fact that some won’t be playing anywhere near as much as they’d like is going to be a bit of a challenge. Whether it’s frustration, lack of motivation, perhaps some press outbursts or back channel leaks, it will be part of the balancing act of Arsenal 2021-22.

—

Speaking of Arteta, he meets the press this morning ahead of our trip to Burnley on Saturday. It feels very difficult to analyse Arsenal properly, because we’re still in one game at a time territory. It’s up to each individual to view that opening month the way they like, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that with the transfer window closed, with the players he wanted in the team and available to him, and based on comments by Arteta himself (and Edu, of course), there can be no more excuses now.

We’ll have all the latest from the presser over on Arseblog News this morning. Heads up to a brand new Arsenal Women Arsecast in your podcast player (or here), and I’ll be back tomorrow with more here and a regular Arsecast too. Until then, take it easy.

The post Arsenal horror as man shouts during football game appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Morning all.

Following the injury to Liverpool’s Harvey Elliot at the weekend, there’s a growing focus on how players in the Premier League are being allowed to make tackles we thought had been a thing of the past.

The one below, for example, is an absolute classic of the ‘If that was Granit Xhaka ..’ genre:

I don’t care who it is How is this not a free kick and a yellow card needs sorting this pic.twitter.com/NsvOtbABwP

— Matty Alley (@AlleyMatty) September 13, 2021

There’s no doubt in my mind that if it’s Xhaka, it’s at least a yellow. As it was, James Tarkowski was not booked, and that challenge didn’t even warrant a booking according to … *checks notes* … referee Martin Atkinson. Yes, the same Martin Atkinson that sent Xhaka off against Man City a couple of weeks ago.

The context of this is that head of PGMOL, Mike Riley, has instructed referees to ‘let it flow’, to allow the game to become more fluid and less intruded upon by over-zealous officiating. There’s no written rule or anything, just an edict that nobody really knows the details of. Just two weeks ago in The Times, Henry Winter wrote:

Two weekends into the Premier League season and few expected that Mike Riley, head of the referees and hitherto a stickler for pedantic micro-officiating of games, to be one of the stars of the show. Captain Mainwaring has become Captain Marvel.

Reasons abound behind Riley’s belated but welcome conversion to the “let it flow” credo, not least the successful Euro 2020 in which advantage was played, simulation ignored, and referees applauded. Even before the Euros, the clamour among supporters, managers, players and broadcasters in England was deafening for more advantage, less interference. Riley’s listened.

Yet just a couple of days before that article was published, Liverpool played Burnley at Anfield, beat Sean Dyche’s side 2-0 and afterwards, Jurgen Klopp expressed some concern about the vigorous nature of some of the tackles and the failure of the referee to manage them, saying:

“I am not 100 per cent sure if we are going in the right direction with these decisions, if we go 10-15 years back. It is too dangerous – it is just hard. The rules are how they are but you cannot defend these situations.”

“There’s a message that is ‘let the game flow’ but no one knows exactly what that means, so I’m not sure.

“We have to stick to protecting the players.”

A few weeks on, and that lionising of Mike Riley – of all people – looks even worse than it did at the time. An 18 year old player is going to miss a large chunk of the season, and may suffer complications throughout his career after suffering such a horrible injury. Richarlison was lucky not to get badly injured by Tarkowski on Monday night, and earlier in the game was taken out from behind by Josh Brownhill who, remarkably – or possibly by virtue of not being Granit Xhaka – escaped a booking. The tackle from behind was outlawed years ago, so why on earth is being allowed without the correct censure now? Some nebulous concept like ‘Let it flow’ doesn’t cut it.

We all want to see the game played at high speed, without stop/start interruptions, but there’s a big difference between trying to play advantage a bit more, and essentially ignoring challenges which football has spent years trying to eliminate from the game. It is an invitation for those so inclined to cross lines which should not be crossed, especially in the modern game.

Ken Early wrote about it well for the Irish Times (£), and spoke on the Second Captains podcast on Monday, making the very good point that players these days are brought up in era when they don’t expect to be taken out from behind by a scissors tackle – and for good reason. They don’t have the tools to deal with the increase in dangerous play. The days of the ‘hard man’ are long gone (although the conflation between a tough but fair player and a coward who scythes people down has always been irritating to me).

English football has long had a problem with the physical aspect of the game. The passion, the running around, the hard work, and the crunching tackle has always been at the core of it. Suspicion of things like technique, skill and even professionalism in terms of how you live your life on and off the pitch, has never fully gone away. There’s still a sense that they are other, foreign, and not to be trusted. It’s why a single Robert Pires tumble sees him labelled a diver, but an English player like Michael Owen or Harry Kane, whose own theatrics are more egregious and committed with far greater frequency, is seen as ‘clever’ through the lens of the English media.

Klopp’s comments about protecting players drew derision from the usual quarters, but Arsenal fans should connect with what he said. How many times was Arsene Wenger mocked or scorned when he made similar points down the years? Even after three players – Abou Diaby, Eduardo, and Aaron Ramsey – suffered some of the most horrific injuries English football has ever seen, he was dismissed as soft, other, foreign. Arsenal just didn’t like it up ’em (as if anyone likes it up ’em).

You’d have thought that in 2021, knowing what we know about the game, learning from what has come before, we wouldn’t be at this point, but we are. It’s a retrograde step, and it’s dangerous. Being less officious about small things during a game is one thing, but completely ignoring – and thus encouraging – challenges which can cause, and have caused, serious injury to players is something else entirely.

As usual, as they did with VAR, and as they have done in other areas down the years, the PGMOL have implemented something under the auspices of improving the game, but made it worse. How long does the Premier League have to suffer under an association that for years, has not been fit for purpose? If this is the so-called best league in the world, that should apply to all aspects of it, and officiating is a major part. You can’t be the best airline in the world if your pilots are told ‘Ahh, just get the plane down however you like’.

By the way, Arsenal play Burnley on Saturday.

Have a good one.

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One of the most interesting aspects of Saturday’s team selection was the decision to start Aaron Ramsdale over Bernd Leno.

The German hasn’t necessarily been bad this season, and has made some good saves in some of the games. Still, there have been moments. Not coming for that cross in the Man City game (not that I think it would have changed much, and Calum Chambers was still at fault for the header), and the second goal against Brentford where I think it’s fair to say he was being fouled but at the same time too weak.

I don’t think the change was made based on just those three games though. Leno has been a good shot stopper for us since his arrival, and in his early days it was like having a goalkeeping Cesc Fabregas with the ball at his feet in comparison to Petr Cech who looked like Clumpy Joe trying to play the ball out from the back and almost scoring own goals when making a simple pass. It feels kind of startling how quickly he’s lost his confidence in that regard.

I wondered about his recent tendency to go long so often with goal kicks, whether it was a lack of confidence on his part, but lest we forget, let’s remember what Mikel Arteta said when he was asked if he got nervous seeing his team play out from the back:

No. I get nervous when we kick the ball long! The quicker it goes there, the quicker it comes back. I’d rather do that with the right structure, the right timing and using the right spaces.

Playing out from the back seems like a core aspect of the way Arteta wants his team to play, and we haven’t been doing that as well as we should of late. Admittedly, it’s more difficult against teams like Man City and Chelsea, but it was evident in the Brentford game too. The first time they pressed high, we crapped our pants and decided to go long from then on. But isn’t that the whole point of playing that way? You ‘lure’ the opposition in, you work the ball beyond them, and then the pitch is open, the game is stretched, and from there you look to take advantage of that space and the men you bypassed.

It’s too soon to say how much difference there is between both keepers at this point. In the only vaguely comparable game, Leno made 23/23 short passes against Brentford, Ramsdale made 16/16 against Norwich, while Leno’s 3/9 long passes is basically the same as Ramsdale’s 4/9 on Saturday. Interestingly though, Ramsdale made 5 long passes into the opposition attacking third, Leno just 1 against Brentford, so the new man may well have an advantage when it comes to distance. As I said though, the sample size is so small, we need more data to made any definitive assertions.

Arteta was interesting afterwards though when asked about Ramsdale’s performance, saying:

It is not only what he did on the technical side, it is what he transmits, his energy, his chemistry with the backline, how he reacts, his body language… I think it was top.

As James mentioned on the Arsecast, and as others have spoken about, Ramsdale seems to have more about him in terms of personality, how he communicates with his defenders and so on, and while you can’t measure that with stats, I think it’s such an important thing for a goalkeeper. Obviously Leno talks too, he’s not a silent character, but he’s not as outwardly effusive and demonstrative, and when Arteta made his decision, I suspect this was a factor. He needed to change his team, not simply in terms of personnel, but its character and Ramsdale is definitely different.

I think it’s also fair to point out that Ramsdale, when playing it around at the back, had Ben White and Gabriel in front of him; Leno has had Rob Holding and Pablo Mari who simply aren’t as assured in possession. I don’t think Leno has helped some of them with some iffy distribution, but if you want to be a team that builds from the back, the former pairing are not going to get you where you need to go. I also think the differences between our ‘first choice’ central defenders and their back-ups will become more more evident as the season goes on.

Back to the keepers though, and the weekend decision means the ‘number 1’ shirt is now Ramsdale’s to lose. I don’t think you can basically drop a senior player like Leno and then just bring him back when his replacement has done well and kept a clean sheet on his Premier League debut. It was inevitable that a £24m signing was going to become first choice, it was always just a matter of time, but I wasn’t quite expecting it this soon. You can understand why it happened though, and the question now is how does Leno react?

We know his future is in some doubt, but how hard will he fight to win his place back? This is essentially a new thing for him. He became first choice at Bayer Leverkeusen at a very young age, and remained their number one until Arsenal signed him. Even that period when he was behind Cech after signing for us was brief, he knew it was just a matter of time before he usurped an old player on his last legs, but now he’s been replaced himself – and at 29 that’s going to sting. It’s still very young in the life of a keeper.

I don’t think he’s going to be here beyond this season, but he’s got to show some kind of fight to attract a new club, keep his place in the international set-up, and simply for professional pride. Players want to play and I’m sure he’s no different.

Ramsdale said after Norwich:

I don’t know what the manager is going to do. This might have just been a tactical tweak, so it is my responsibility to force him to carry on picking me, which is something I have to do on a daily basis.

Me and Bernd will be very competitive in a good way, healthy and hopefully I can stay in the team.

I suspect that part of Leno’s indifferent performances have stemmed from a lack of real competition. Until Emi Martinez blossomed in that period after the German’s injury, he was a very obvious second choice, there were few who thought the Argentine should take his place at any point. Once he left, Alex Runarsson offered no competition, and Mat Ryan – as a loan signing – wasn’t a permanent threat to him either.

I’m not suggesting he’s been complacent, but nearly every player needs genuine competition to keep them on their toes. Leno hasn’t had it, and I think his level has dipped because of it. He’s definitely got it now, and it’ll be fascinating to see how he responds. Saturday might not exactly have been a wake-up call, but maybe a short, sharp shock to the system can help both him and Ramsdale as this season goes on.

Arsecast Extra for you below, happy listening!

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This Arsecast Extra was recorded with ipDTL

The post Ramsdale provides competition Leno hasn’t had for too long appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Welcome to another Arsecast Extra, the Arsenal podcast, with myself and James from @gunnerblog.

At long last it’s a Goodly Morning as James and I discuss the 1-0 win over Norwich at the Emirates on Saturday. It wasn’t perfect, but there were things to like about the performance and in particular a very fresh feeling team selection with five of the six summer signings starting. We chat about how we felt at the time versus how we feel now, the goal we scored, individual performances, the chances we missed to make the game more comfortable, and why the game ebbed and flowed at times. Then there are listener questions about Mikel Arteta and press conference comportment, what the selection of Aaron Ramsdale over Bernd Leno means for the German, end product from Martin Odegaard, a potential shift to a 433, and lots more – including leaf-blowing man and a snoring dog.

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The post Arsecast Extra Episode 433 – 13.09.2021 appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Morning all. Starting off a new week on the back of a weekend win means things are less introspective than they have been, and frankly that’s a good thing.

It’s quite funny how results change how you think about things. Well, I mean it’s obvious in one way, but this time last week (or the week before after the Man City game), it was hard to consider too many positives. I’ll freely admit it was difficult to see how exactly we were going to dig ourselves out of the hole we were in. Yes, it was only three games blah blah blah, but they had been so bad they had a profound effect on my thought process.

Then, a decent-ish performance against Norwich (yes, it’s only Norwich etc etc), and it’s much easier to see the light. To see a defence with new faces, new skillsets, new combinations, and how it might come together. The return of a top class midfielder who makes such a difference. Another goal for the captain, and that’s four so far this season for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (yes, it was only West Brom etc etc), but we feared that the goalscoring touch had deserted him and there’s evidence it hasn’t, as long as we get the ball to him in the right areas.

Clearly we have a very long way to go, one game doesn’t solve everything (especially one against Only Norwich – their new official name), but I’m glad to have that slightly more positive perspective this morning. I don’t enjoy it when Arsenal are bad, I don’t like being down on the club, but there hasn’t been a lot to be upbeat about so far this season. Now we have a few things that give us a bit of hope, things to take into the next game that we can hopefully improve on, do better, and continue to incrementally change the trajectory.

I’ve also been thinking about something Mikel Arteta said after the game on Saturday. He is, and remains, a manager under serious pressure for very obvious reasons, and there’s no doubt he’s been feeling it. He spoke about dealing with it at home, saying:

“That negativity has to come away. You have to bear in mind that first of all you are doing everything you can to your best capacity, and don’t kid yourself or look for excuses. Normally the easiest thing to do is blame the players: ‘They are not good enough. I have this, I have that.’ And then you try to over-coach them.

“I was not willing to do that because first of all they don’t deserve that. The people around this club don’t deserve it. You just want to hit yourself because you are not doing things right and you are not getting the outcome you think you deserve.”

It’s not possible for a Premier League manager to exist in a bubble where they’re insulated from the reality of where they are. There were some scenes (perhaps after the Chelsea game), where his car was surrounded, some things were shouted. Unseemly, yes, but the same thing happens after positive results where adulation, rather than criticism, is the motivation.

It was this bit that had me thinking though. He was asked to reflect on the last couple of weeks, after that City game, after all the misery of the opening three games, and he said:

I must say, it’s probably been the best 10 to 15 days I’ve ever had since I’ve been in football. I’m not saying they were the easiest, but probably the best. You have to find a purpose for why you do what you do and why you’ve made the decision to be a football player or a coach. It’s all made sense in the last week or so. It’s about the relationship we have built. It’s about the level of trust that everybody at the club has. It’s about connections and emotionally how players react, how everybody in the team – and I’m talking about every department at the club – supports and tries to improve and be positive around the situation. You have to win football matches but, for me, that’s an absolute joy to watch, how everybody has been behaving around the context that we had around us.

At first I thought it was a bit mad, to be honest. The sort of thing a manager says to avoid focusing on the negatives on what was a welcome positive day. Now, I just wonder if it’s because of what happened behind the scenes, and how everyone responded to how poor the start to the season was. Did he fear that he might ‘lose the dressing room’, and instead he found the players were still on board, ready to work hard to put things right? Saturday’s performance against Norwich wasn’t perfect by any means, but there was no obvious lack of effort from the players, or any sign that they were going through the motions. We can all spot that a mile off, and that wasn’t there.

If that’s what it was, I can understand why he might feel a kind of relief, and how he might view that period in a positive light. I suspect there’s a bit of over-egging the pudding here, and that there have been far better periods in his football life than this one, but if there has been some behind the scenes togetherness and evidence that the players are still willing do the work etc, I can understand where he’s coming from (I think).

He is still swimming against the tide in terms of public opinion, but if he’s still got the trust/faith of the players that’s a good thing for him, and hopefully for us too. As a team we have a far better chance of making our way up that Premier League table if everyone’s willing to do the work. Whether it will enough for Arteta remains to be seen, but I want Arsenal to win games, and as I’ve said before, everything else – good or bad – will follow from whether or not we do that.

Ok, let’s leave it there for today. James and I will be recording the Arsecast Extra for you later this morning. Keep an eye out for the call for questions on Twitter @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re on Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Podcast should be out at lunchtime or thereabouts, so until then, take it easy.

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Match report – Player ratings – Video

Tell you what, when you wake up on a Sunday morning to write about Arsenal winning a game of football, it’s far preferable than the alternatives. I like it, and I wish to do it more often.

I’m not going to go through the game from start to finish, but instead here are some things I liked yesterday.

Freshness

Five of our six summer signings started this game, including a debut for Takehiro Tomiyasu and a first Premier League start for Aaron Ramsdale. It gave the team a different look, one that was less tired, less been there, done that, worn the raggedy old t-shirt that really should be used as a rag now or thrown out because you can’t even donate it to a charity shop.

I think perhaps it’s been overlooked how young the team was. The average age was 23.9, pushed up by 32 year old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and 26 year old Nicolas Pepe. We had one 20 year old, three at 22, three at 23, and two 24 year olds. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s much easier to see how we might be better when they play together more.

TT

I was impressed by the Japan international’s debut, especially when you consider he only arrived on Wednesday and has barely had time to get his feet under the table. He was very good aerially, winning 5 of 6 duels, he recovered well a couple of times when things didn’t quite go his way, and for a player who didn’t get forward much at Bologna, he had two attempts on goal in the first half – the second of which, a flying volley, was probably our most eye-catching moment of the opening 45 minutes.

It’s very easy to see why he has been bought to play in this team, and while it’s obviously a very small sample size, he had a good debut.

Ben White and Gabriel

This is the partnership that has to work for us. I watched Ben White closely, and the thing that stood out for me from early on was how, whenever he received the ball, his first thought was how he could get it forward rather than immediately circulating it out to the right back. Whether it was a pass into midfield or carrying it himself, he wanted to get the ball further up the pitch.

I know it doesn’t completely add up because Tomiyasu only lasted 62 minutes, but he passed to Tomiyasu just three times, whereas in the Brentford game – the most analogous to this one –  he passed to Calum Chambers 18 times. A change of approach and instruction, perhaps, but it was notable how he eschewed the easy option so often. I suspect there’s more to come when he finds his range and settles in to the side, and when his teammates realise where he can ping the ball.

Alongside him, Gabriel was less adventurous with the ball, but very secure with it – and only just behind White when it came to attacking third passes. He won all of his defensive duels, and produced one outstanding block late on to deny Norwich a clear sight of goal. Again, early days, but you can start to see how the balance of their partnership might work.

The visitors had some dangerous moments, but Ramsdale barely had a save to make because of the commitment of the defending from front to back, which is a very encouraging thing to see when a team is in the doldrums like we are. It, as much as getting forward and making things happen at the attacking end, shows a desire to change things.

30 shots

One of the big complaints is that we don’t score enough, and that’s obviously a problem. We took 30 shots yesterday, the most we’ve ever had in a Premier League game under Arteta. In the heat of the game, I felt frustration that I’m sure many of you did that we didn’t make the game safer, or that sense we were still a bit toothless, but I also think in the cold light of day you can look back and see chances/moments that we should have done better with. Tim Krul made some good saves between bouts of time-wasting, and we weren’t as clinical as we should have been.

If you are minded to look for green shoots though, the fact we had those chances is a positive. Arteta referenced the pressure the team felt going into this, and we all know why. At times it felt like we were being somewhat inhibited by it, like we were playing on some kind of precarious tightrope where one misstep would have been disastrous, but looking back it’s a game we should have scored more goals in and won more comfortably.

I really hope that the win has released the pressure valve just a little, and that in turn might see us play with a bit more freedom and thus be a little more assured in those final third moments when they crop up.

The fans

It’s clear there’s a serious split when it comes to the manager, but I thought there was full backing for the team – it came across very clearly on TV, and from those I’ve spoken to, it was evident inside the ground too. There’s a very big difference between expressing unhappiness with your team’s performance and hating your team, which appears to be the media portrayal of Arsenal fans far too frequently.

I genuinely dislike the ‘true fans’ trope that pops up after a game like this, as if the only people who genuinely care are those inside the ground, or those who only seek positives, even when times are bad. However, on a day when the team badly needed to rouse the supporters, the supporters played their part too and I’m glad the reward was a win and three points.

Winning

As I said at the top, it’s good, and I enjoy it when it happens. I can’t tell you how tired I am of the social media tone police who try to cast everything into a negative light. Losing is bad, so if you complain about that you have every right, but if you also complain when we’re winning, what are you doing with your life?

You see stuff like ‘It’s only Norwich’, or ‘People are celebrating like we’ve won the world cup’, and it’s such bullshit. Of course there is significant room for improvement. We know it’s Norwich. We know we should beat them. We know the start of the season has been terrible. We also know that winning one game doesn’t mean everything is perfect again, or that all of our problems are solved. Not one single person has ever made that assertion, but you get bombarded with that kind of stuff all the time.

The reaction to yesterday’s game was a mix of happiness and relief, and I think entirely justified. We needed a goal from anywhere, and a win, and we got it. It is a small step in the right direction, and that’s it, but people are quite entitled to feel happy when their team has won a game of football – even if its significance is small in the grand scheme of things. If you’re not happy, that’s up to you, but stop trying to tell other people how they should feel.

—

Right, that’s it for today. More tomorrow, and James and I will go over the Norwich game on the Arsecast Extra.

Have a good Sunday, weekends are far better when we win games, eh?

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Join us for live blog coverage of our Premier League clash with Norwich City, kick-off 15.00

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Right, time to get going.

That sounds like the end of a post, but it works here because it applies to Arsenal’s season. You don’t don’t need me to remind you where we are, you don’t need to be told how this is a ‘must win’, you don’t need an explanation as to why the pressure on today’s game is so intense – it’s all completely self-evident.

The only interesting thing is how Mikel Arteta is going to try and do it. Speaking about his squad in the build-up to this game and after the close of the transfer window, he said:

“We are in a much better place. I’m happy with what we’ve been able to do with the ideas that we had. Now it’s about getting the maximum out of that team.”

If there were some mitigating factors in the opening three games, injuries and Covid absences in particular, that’s no longer the case. The manager basically has a full squad to choose from, only Granit Xhaka is missing due to his suspension, and it’s a matter of personal opinion how much you feel that absence should worry us.

Thomas Partey, Gabriel and Ben White all return, and those are significant players to have back. We know how much the Ghanaian international can bring to midfield, but we now have to see it on a more consistent basis. He’s been unlucky with injury, but Arteta is clear that he sees him as an important cog in the machine, saying:

“He has to be the boss in midfield and one of the senior players that has to carry responsibility and lead the young players. We have been missing that big time.

“He’s a player that has that winning culture because he has won a lot in the game already. To have these kind of players in the team is extremely important. He has a huge role to play.”

We spent £50m on Ben White, and almost £30m on Gabriel 12 months ago. If that money was spent without a plan to make them a partnership that can work together I’d be very surprised. Both 23, they could be the bedrock of our defence for years if they develop well, but they need to start playing together. I expect to see them both start today.

Right-back will be an interesting choice, because you can see from the profile of Takehiro Tomiyasu exactly why he’s been signed. He’s not a right-sided Kieran Tierney, but someone who can tuck in, make that back three shape without having to sacrifice one of the central midfielders (the way Xhaka used to drop back), and he adds height and presence in the back line too. The only question about today is if it’s too soon for him. He only arrived this week and hasn’t had much time to train, but when your other options are the two players who have been hugely disappointing this season so far, the temptation must be to throw him straight in. At the end of the day, he’s 22, a full international, with 160+ senior club appearances to his name, not some kid who has barely ever played.

Albert Sambi Lokonga could be the Partey partner in midfield today, unless Arteta does something quite different – as discussed on the Patreon preview podcast with Lewis. It would involve him taking the handbrake off to an extent I’m not sure is possible given his inherent desire for control, but if there was a game to genuinely have a go at the opposition, why not this one? It’s not as if what we’ve been doing before has been so stellar we can’t possibly contemplate a change.

In essence, it would mean using Thomas Partey as a 6, play Martin Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe as 8s, and then get Bukayo Saka, Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ahead of them to cause the Norwich defence problems. It would still leave us with the likes of Alexandre Lacazette, Gabriel Martinelli, Eddie Nketiah and Folarin Balogun as attacking options from the bench, so we wouldn’t be shooting our entire load straight away, and if you need some midfield reinforcement, you’ve got Sambi there. I’d be surprised to see it, but pleasantly so all the same.

Regardless of the team he does pick though, it has to perform. It’s a 3pm Saturday game, the frustration and the pressure is palpable, but inside that stadium the fans will want nothing more than to see the team win. People talk a lot about how supporters can get behind a team, but a team can also give supporters plenty to get behind in terms of how they play, how they approach the game, the intensity they show in key moments, and so on. Ultimately, fan influence is tiny compared to those 11 men on the pitch and the man on the touchline who has prepared them for the game.

I don’t know what more I can say about this. Those who can absolutely compartmentalise those first three games and see this as a reset or a new start have my admiration. Personally, it’s not so much the results as the performances that worried me against Brentford, Chelsea and Man City, but I sincerely hope today the team can demonstrate a bit more Arsenal, because what we’ve seen until now is so far removed from what should be acceptable for this club.

Leaving aside doubts or questions about the manager, all I want to do is see this team win games – everything else will follow from that. Let’s see a team that is energised, set-up well, and capable of playing football which can generate results and be enjoyable at the same time. I think it’s going to take a little while to build any kind of momentum, but the forward motion has to start today.

—

As ever, we’ll have live blog coverage for you, and all the post-game stuff on Arseblog News.

Catch you later for the game.

The post Norwich preview: Must, need, have to … blah blah blah appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Good morning, a quick Friday round-up for you.

Mikel Arteta’s press conference took place yesterday, and to be honest, most of it you could have predicted. Nevertheless, there were some interesting bits and pieces, with the manager making it clear that while the summer transfer business speaks to a medium/long-term project, that has to be coupled with results now.

That’s the reality for Arsenal, for Arteta, for Edu, for those at the top: you can have the best plan for the future, but if the present is sub-par, you live and die by that particular sword. Edu’s interview over the weekend, where he explained the recruitment strategy for those dim enough not to see exactly what it was (because it was blindingly obvious, let’s be honest), felt just a little like the Technical Director was posturing.

He did it because the first three games were so abysmal and there was pressure for someone to speak, but his position and role hasn’t always been clear. Does he have more authority than Arteta? If this was a Technical Director/Head Coach situation, that would be obvious, but a Technical Director/Manager scenario is different. It’s still not completely clear, they were described as ‘a two-headed beast’ by David Ornstein on last week’s Arsecast, but Arteta made it clear that this summer’s transfer business has been agreed on by everyone, not something that was foisted on him:

Edu explained it like I tried to explain it. We have all participated, trying to create and build this project, led by the owners, and it is a project we believe in, that we have to assemble because it is the only option that we believe was best for the future of the club. We all take responsibility because we have all been involved in the decision and we have to make it work.

The complexity in football is that you want to build a medium to long-term project with immediate results and we have to embrace that, because there is no other way in football and you are going to have to get results and we are ready to do that.

I’m not sure it’s a riposte to what Edu said as much as an endorsement of it, trying to ensure there’s a air of harmony in difficult times, but if it works, it works for everyone. The flip side, of course, is that if it doesn’t, everyone ought to be under the same kind of scrutiny. For all of our sakes, and our general happiness and well-being, I really hope it does.

One of the late transfer window dramas was the Ainsley Maitland-Niles situation. Arsenal rejected a loan bid from Everton, the player wanted to go, he did the Instagram thing, and it was all a bit unseemly. Thankfully, it appears to have been soothed with a private conversation, and he’ll be involved with the team this season. Quite where he’ll play is another thing, but from what the manager has said, it seems like he can expect to be our utility man, with Arteta urging him to embrace that:

He knows that he has a unique quality in sport. His versatility to play in many positions and he needs to become the best at doing that as it’s something very rare to find in football.

Sometimes it’s difficult for a player who doesn’t operate in one specific position, but at this point for Ainsley, maybe it’s something he has to consider strongly. It’s not as if he didn’t have the chance to really nail down the right-back/wing-back position when Hector Bellerin was injured. He did well in general, and while reports about him refusing to play there are wide of the mark, I do think he expressed a reluctance – or at least a desire to play somewhere else.

He left in January to play in what we were told was his favourite position: central midfield. Yet just a few years ago he spoke openly about where he saw himself, saying:

“I’d like to be a winger. I was a striker growing up.

“I like to think of myself as a winger at 25 years old, starting every week for Arsenal, scoring and assisting goals.

“I don’t feel like I’m there. I’m still young and I have a lot of learning to do.”

That was 2019, he’s just turned 24, but I think it’s fair to assume he’s not going to be a winger for Arsenal by the time he’s 25. Which is to say, there appears to be some indecision on his part as to where he wants to play, so maybe a role where he can lean into his versatility is best. I could see him start this weekend against Norwich, depending on whether or not new signing Takehiro Tomiyasu is considered ready for selection.

Neither Calum Chambers or Cedric have played well enough so far this season, so why not start AMN at right-back against Norwich? He might even be needed in midfield because Granit Xhaka suspended, Mohamed Elneny is injured, and there are slight doubts over Albert Sambi Lokonga who sat out Belgium’s game in midweek as a precaution after he felt something in training.

It’s hard to know what Maitland-Niles’ long-term future will hold, but right now, you can see that there are gaps in the squad that he could easily fill if he’s minded to do that. I hope he is, he played well enough to garner an England call up, and since then things haven’t progressed as well as everyone would have liked. Let’s see what he can do if and when he’s given chances this season.

Right, let’s leave it there for now. For your listening pleasure, there’s a brand new Arsecast below, chatting all about Arteta, Edu, Partey, Gabriel and lots more with Charles Watts. Happy listening, and don’t forget there’ll be a Norwich preview podcast on Patreon later this afternoon.

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Welcome to another episode of the Arsecast – the Arsenal podcast.

On this week’s show I’m joined by Charles Watts to discuss the post-Interlull requirements for Arsenal – start scoring, and start winning. We chat about the Edu interview, and how the pressure is on Mikel Arteta to produce now, even if there is a medium/long-term plan being implemented. There’s also discussion of Thomas Partey, Gabriel Magalhaes, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and lots more.

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The post Episode 644 – Clean Slate appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Over the summer there has been plenty of discussion around Arsenal’s transfer strategy. With Ben White (23), Martin Odegaard (22), Takehiro Tomiyasu (22), Nuno Tavares (21), Albert Sambi Lokonga (21) and Aaron Ramsdale (23) all purchased during this transfer window, the idea to bring the average age of the squad down was so obvious that even a well-paid Sky Sports pundit couldn’t fail to notice it.

For the benefit of those that struggled to decipher the startlingly obvious, Arsenal’s Technical Director Edu Gaspar fronted up to the cameras last week, cracked out the crayons and the hand puppets and articulated it one more time. “We signed six players who are under 23, which means a lot in terms of our planning…Why did we do that? Because we have a reason to try again to create a good foundation.”

The idea to make the squad younger is a good one and also a very simple one. You shouldn’t need to give absurd contracts to Cedric and Willian before you realise it’s a bad idea any more than you should need to thrust your hand into a blazing oven before you understand that it’s not a bright idea. But we are where we are.

Arsenal have travelled the youth project avenue before and they have all the PowerPoints to prove it. There is a distinction this time, however, compared with the early Emirates Stadium years when Arsene Wenger reasoned that the best way to compete during the credit crunch of stadium debt was to build a team of young players from around the world.

Those players had very little top-level experience and they were recruited as teenagers, on the whole. Arsenal aren’t quite that young on this occasion, the players they have recruited are in their early 20s and all have some top-level experience. However, this project is just as economically driven as its predecessor.

Young players are cheaper, generally speaking, certainly in terms of salary. Arsenal ran into problems with the original Project Youth blueprint when they started extending player contracts at inflated fees. Denilson, Bendtner and Diaby’s second contracts were burdensome ultimately, not their initial terms.

when we signed them:

Pepe – 24
Torreira – 22
Saliba – 18
Dooz – 19
Xhaka – 23
Mustafi – 24
Holding – 20
Sead – 23
Elneny – 23

we skipped signing a few old guys here and there. which was good! but this is hardly the first time we’ve gone young, and it’s hardly a guarantee.

— DTDCGooner (@DTDCGooner) September 8, 2021

I think there is a sense of salary equalisation in effect with this summer’s purchases which makes a lot of sense. However, making the squad younger is the easy part. The difficult part, as Arsene Wenger discovered, is assessing potential correctly. Arsenal have signed those six players on the understanding that they are yet to reach their respective ceilings.

The divergence between Mikel Arteta’s personal timeline to rescue his job and the time it will take for this group of players to reach their potential are probably not in synch. That is not the Technical Director’s problem, of course. His job is to secure the future. That said, Edu will be judged on the same terms as Arteta, even if the timeline for those judgements does not synchronise totally.

Getting younger is easy. Getting better is difficult. The range of outcomes for a young player is broader than it is for a player in their prime, it’s that simple. As we saw during the original Project Youth, even the most talented young players don’t realise their potential for a multitude of reasons.

The range of outcomes is smaller for players in their early 20s than those in their teens but essentially, a hell of a lot is riding on the assessment of the likes of Ramsdale, Odegaard and White in particular. These were the expensive buys and the players who will form the spine of the team- in White and Odegaard’s case that will be immediate, Ramsdale might have to wait a short while.

Those players in particular have to be really good now and great eventually. Lokonga is a more medium term ‘bet.’ Tomiyasu is an exterior player but another who has to be good enough to strengthen the first eleven now. In many respects, it doesn’t really matter how good Tavares is, because he has been brought in to understudy a key player.

The chances of Tavares supplanting Kieran Tierney are slim, so he either ends up being good and leaving because he is bored of not playing, or else he ends up being bad and Arsenal try to sell him back to Portugal in a couple of years. It is unlikely Tavares will ever sign another contract at Arsenal (there again, Calum Chambers has been at the club for over seven years now…)

Arteta and Edu don’t have an outstanding track record when it comes to assessment of talent. They misidentified the attributes of Cedric and Willian (possibly even Pablo Mari), they signed Pierre Emerick Aubameyang to a big new contract and then demonstrated no real plan for how to use him. They dithered in their assessment of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Reiss Nelson and Eddie Nketiah and left a lot of valuable sales money on the table as a consequence of that indecision.

Arsenal fans have to hope that with a more defined strategy comes more clear-headed talent identification. Sending Joe Willock onto a suitable loan deal before cashing in their chips for a good price this summer is, hopefully, a baby-step in the right direction and ought to end the paralysis Arsenal seem to experience when it comes to selling players.

Edu also pointed to the need for more senior players to coalesce around this young core. “We have five senior players in the squad and in the first XI in Bernd Leno, Granit Xhaka, Thomas Partey, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.” The issue, of course with the players Edu name checked is that Arsenal would have seriously entertained a good offer for four of them this summer.

I have seen a lot of criticism of the senior players for their lack of leadership last season, while younger players like Saka and Smith Rowe were left to carry the team. I think there are two issues here. First of all, it’s probably very difficult for a player between 29 – 33 to motivate themselves to oversee a youth project that probably has the (unstated) ambition to get back into the top six. It’s not an exciting project to provide the coda on one’s career.

However, in the main I think there has been a conflation here between leadership and quality. The experienced players did not lack leadership, they lacked quality. Nobody bemoaned Pierre Emerick Aubameyang’s leadership when he was scoring the goals to win Arsenal the FA Cup in 2020.

Nothing changed for him in pure leadership terms in 2020-21, he just wasn’t as good (for a multitude of reasons, most likely). Willian wasn’t a bad “leader” he was a bad player. Edu did not namecheck the likes of Rob Holding, Calum Chambers and Cedric Soares in his leadership group and it’s not because they are inferior “leaders” to the players that he did mention, it’s that they are inferior players.

Ultimately, for all the talk of strategy, youth, experience, leadership- all worthy, necessary things in their own right, they are all enormously over-indexed in conversations about squad building. It’s mainly about talent, that’s the bottom line. Smith Rowe and Saka are not leaders, per se, they just happen to be among Arsenal’s best players.

They didn’t really need a 29-year old teammate puffing them up or slapping their backs to reach that perch, they did so because they are good. Talent elevated them, youth alone wasn’t enough to win Reiss Nelson a place in the team and experience alone has not been a good enough reason to pick Cedric. Talent will be the deciding factor of Arteta and Edu’s project. Let’s hope they’ve assessed it correctly in their summer recruits.

Follow me on Twitter @Stillberto– Or like my page on Facebook

The post Talent appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Here’s a good quiz question: Which player has never made a first team appearance for his club, but is nearly in double figures for his country?

Answer: Karl Hein. He’s been on the bench for us a few times, including the opening day of the season against Brentford, but has yet to play for the first team. Last night though, winning his 9th cap for Estonia, he kept Wales at bay for Estonia, including one outstanding save from professional golfer Gareth Bale – check it out here.

I’m definitely not the Arsenal history guy, there are people out there who remember all kinds of stuff about all kinds of things, but surely this is a unique situation? A player yet to make his debut for us, or in senior football at club level, but basically first choice for his national side? He is only 19, and this season he has Bernd Leno and Aaron Ramsdale in front of him – possibly even Arthur Okonkwo too, so his chances of an Arsenal appearance are slim.

He could possibly play another handful of internationals between now and May though, so it presents quite an interesting situation for the club to deal with. There’s likely to be some goalkeeper turnover next summer so perhaps he’ll get his chance then. If he can keep performing for his country, why not?

Of course, Karl Hein carries on the great Estonian goalkeeping tradition at Arsenal, following in the footsteps of Mart Poom who made two appearances for us in the 2006-7 season, but played 120 times at international level. Maybe there’s a long-standing tradition in Estonia where the goalkeeper’s first and last name must be four letters each. Other keepers with more vowels and syllables will never stand a chance, so if you’re in Estonia now and your son is called …

• Dayv Lynx
• Robo Cask
• Trev Flog
• Iain Pluk
• Stan Glov
• Arty Ziff
• Paul Sayv
• Nige Milk
• Bren Dann
• Kris Burd
• Timm Tamm
• Xavi Webb
• Fred Netz
• Leon Post
• Ztop Penn
• Nail Quin
• Greg Blok
• or
• Jame Plop

… then I think you need to buy them a pair of gloves, and starting booting footballs at their head immediately to build up their reflexes. Worry about concussion later.

—

Mikel Arteta meets the press later this morning, ahead of Saturday’s game against Norwich. I’m sure he’ll be happy enough that Gareth Southgate’s aversion to using substitutes meant that Bukayo Saka didn’t play at all against Poland last night, so he should be fit and ready to go. Hopefully we’ll get the question mark over Emile Smith Rowe answered in a positive way too, because it would be nice to go into a game with the strongest team possible.

The training videos put out this week show Thomas Partey back out there, ready to do his stuff, and Gabriel Magalhaes is taking full part too, which is very welcome after Pablo Mari’s dodgy start to the season. From the outside, his performances left a lot to be desired, but internally that must have been felt too, because why else would we pick Sead Kolasinac? This is a man whose Arsenal race was run a long time ago – a player viewed with such disregard last season that we were happy to let him go and simply have no back-up left back at all.

I think this is going to be a big moment for the Brazilian. Remember, this was a player signed by Mikel Arteta last season for a fee of nearly £30m, so there’s a need to make this work. You could argue that his first season was difficult in places. There were obviously some adaptation issues, he picked up Covid which set him back physically and cost him his place in the team for a while, there was pretty harsh red card, and all the while he was playing in a team which always felt like it was struggling like an old car trying to get up a steep hill (even when we were better in the second half of the season).

Now, he’s had that time to settle, he’s recovered from his summer injury, and it’s blindingly obvious there is a place for him to take and call his own. I don’t quite know what his true level is yet, but given he’s only 23, and he’s got all the physical aspects you need to be a modern centre-half, his ceiling is clearly much higher than Mari or Kolasinac. The chance is there for him to absolutely nail himself down as a first name on the teamsheet kind of player, so let’s hope he can start that process against Norwich.

Elsewhere, new signing Takehiro Tomiyasu played 90 minutes for Japan (at centre-half) against China on Tuesday night, so his participation is probably up in the air a little bit. He has to come to London, meet everyone for the first time, get settled in a bit, and I suspect it’s too soon for him to start, but going forward a back line consisting of him, Ben White, Gabriel, and Kieran Tierney is an interesting prospect.

Anyway, whatever happens at the press conference, we’ll cover it over on Arseblog News. For now, I’ll point you in the direction of Patreon, where there’s another episode of Waffle, the podcast in which James and I answer questions about anything and everything except Arsenal (a refreshing break).

Back tomorrow with a regular Arsecast, a Patreon preview podcast, and more on the blog. Until then, take it easy.

The post Goalkeeping trivia + time for Gabriel to nail down his place appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

The final round of Interlull games takes place this evening. From what I can gather, the only Arsenal players involved are Bukayo Saka for England, and Bernd Leno who is going to be on the bench for Germany. Let’s hope they both come through with minimal scathing, and not being scathed at all would be most preferential.

Apparently Martin Odegaard was in good form as Norway beat Gibraltar 5-1 last night, so if he could replicate that at the weekend against Norwich that would be good. I suspect in relative terms, the Canaries are likely to be a sterner test for us than the Gibraltarians (is that a word?) were, but if it gets him into the groove, like some kind of footballing Madonna, let’s not worry too much about that aspect of it.

England U21s played last night, and there was no Emile Smith Rowe. He was apparently ‘unwell’, with Lee Carsley telling Sky Sports:

The post Wednesday round-up: Odegaard, Smith Rowe, Elneny, Patino appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Before the pandemic, I would walk into Dublin city centre a few times each week, to do work in the podcast studio I have there. When you walk the same route, you see a lot of the same people each day doing their things, going about their routines.

You don’t really think of them beyond ‘Oh, there’s that guy/gal’, they’re just part of the background. Always there, but peripheral. Yesterday, I had a thing in the studio for the first time in about 18 months. It was a beautiful day. I walked from my house, down to the canal on my way into the city, the sun glistening on the water, and I saw a man.

He’s probably in his 70s, he wears a cap, and he walks two small dogs. I would see him all the time when the world was ‘normal’, and I don’t quite know why but the minute I saw him with the same small dogs, with the same cap, I was really happy. He is not someone I would ever have thought of, I don’t know his name, I haven’t a clue what he does (beyond walking dogs), but I was so pleased by the fact he was there today. In the same place he always was back before everything changed.

I said ‘Good morning!’ to him as I walked by. He didn’t say anything, but he gave me that nod only an older person can give that acknowledges your greeting, and comes wrapped in a wordless reply.

It was strange, to be honest. Just the presence of this man felt in some way comforting. It feels like everything has been turned upside down since last year. So many things are different. People are gone and they won’t ever come back; the city is changed and I’m not sure it’s for the better; shops and businesses and bars and cafes have closed and they won’t ever come back either; but this man, with his dogs and his cap and his morning walk along the canal is still there.

I do wonder if sometimes we haven’t allowed ourselves the comfort of understanding how wildly this thing has impacted all of our lives. In our forward-looking pursuit of normality once more, we don’t think enough about the damage it has done. For some it has been minor, for others major, but I think we probably need to take stock of it all. Maybe it’s something we can only do properly if and when it’s over, but awareness of it now can only be helpful.

Which is to say, I hope you and yours are doing as well as possible. The man with the cap and the dogs seems to be doing fine, and I love that.

—

As you’ll have gathered, Arsenal news is a bit thin on the ground this morning. The Interlull is in full effect. There were some training ground photos of Thomas Partey back at it, and that can only be a good thing. We really, really, badly, need him to stay fit for a prolonged period now. I think he’s been more unlucky than anything else since he arrived. His first season was blighted by an injury we didn’t appear to deal with properly and that had knock-on effects.

Then, in a pre-season game, some Chelsea lad goes through the back of him, inflicting the ankle injury that has kept him out of the opening weeks of the new campaign. Hopefully everything is healed and he can get up to speed quickly, because midfield requires his quality and presence if we’re going to dig ourselves out of the hole we find ourselves in.

I have a sneaky feeling that his on-pitch relationship with Martin Odegaard is going to be really important for us. At the the moment we have an overwhelming left-sided bias when it comes to the way we attack, and I think these two can offset that. Partey’s vertical passes into Odegaard give us that burst forward, and the Norwegian’s tendency to operate in that right half-space allows greater emphasis in that area of the pitch. Some variety beyond ‘Let’s get it to KT down the left’ feels particularly useful, and if we can apply that on Saturday against Norwich, we should be better for it.

Right, I’ll leave it there for now. There is a brand new Arsecast Extra for you below, discussing our wildly incorrect transfer predictions, whether there’s actual media bias against Arsenal, the Bernd Leno/Aaron Ramsdale situation, and lots more. All the links you need to listen/subscribe are below. Enjoy.

Download – iTunes – Spotify – Acast – RSS

RIP MKW

The post The man was there appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Welcome to another Arsecast Extra, the Arsenal podcast, with myself and James from @gunnerblog.

In this episode James and I enjoy some Interlull chats about the various bits and bobs that have been going on, including Arsenal Women winning, Bukayo Saka scoring for England, and our wildly incorrect transfer predictions, before turning our attention to Edu’s media blitz over the weekend in which he explained the club’s strategy during the transfer window. We talk about the bits that worked, and some that didn’t quite stand up to scrutiny, as well as overall thoughts on what he said. After that we answer listener questions about what that interview means for Mikel Arteta, how can we judge the plan as it progresses, the new right back, whether there is media bias against Arsenal, what’s going to happen with Eddie Nketiah and Folarin Balogun this season, and lots more.

Visit Arsebiz to support fellow Gooners.

Get extra bonus content and help support Arseblog by becoming an Arseblog Member on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/arseblog

Remember, you can send us questions via which we’ll try and get to each week. Send them to either @arseblog or @Gunnerblog (or both) using the hashtag #arsecastextra. Best to send them Monday morning so they get noticed more easily.

You can subscribe to the Arsecast Extra on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes).

You can listen without leaving this page by using the player below, download the Acast app for iOS or Android, or download the MP3 directly using the link below.

Also, if you’re a fan of the show, please leave us a rating/review on iTunes, it’d be greatly appreciated.

Download – iTunes – Spotify – Acast – RSS

This Arsecast Extra was recorded with ipDTL

The post Arsecast Extra Episode 432 – 06.09.2021 appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Morning. Hope you enjoyed your day off yesterday. I did. I pivoted from pizza to burgers, but beyond that I read a book, played with the dogs, and enjoyed the back garden and the unusually warm weather.

Earlier in the day Arsenal Women got their WSL season off to a perfect start with a 3-2 win over Chelsea at the Emirates. I realise that one game is no kind of sample size, but it’s a great way for new head coach Jonas Eidevall to kick off his time in charge, and he told Tim Stillman afterwards:

We know we have a good squad and we are a big club, for us it’s about performing in every game. We will learn and develop during the season, it’s just one game out of many. It wasn’t perfect, I am new to English football and I made some tactical mistakes, I need to learn from today too.

I like the introspection, but I particularly like the ‘We are a big club’ line, a sentiment that needs to filter throughout everything we do. In general faith in those on high is in short supply right now, and that is completely understandable. However, if you’re looking for crumbs of encouragement, the focus on the Women’s team this summer, and the investments made in players/staff look very smart. I know it’s different, but they are the same decision makers, the same people giving the green light for the deals, so let’s hope we can start to apply that to the men too.

Also, if you’re new to the Arsenal Women, we have the most comprehensive coverage of them anywhere over on Arseblog News – add it to your bookmarks, and Tim has put together a brilliant guide to get you started right here. There’s more to come this season too, so stay tuned

Elsewhere, Bukayo Saka scored for England last night as they beat Andorra 4-0. Fans even sang happy birthday to him as he was conducting his post-match interview, which was quite sweet. He said:

“It was the perfect birthday present for me. I am really happy with the reception everyone gave me. It really shows how proud they are of me and I think that meant a lot for me and it made me want to give my all.

“It really made a difference. Even now, I can hear so many fans chanting my name. It means everything. It makes me believe that everyone supports me through different things.”

So much of what we do this season is going to revolve around our young players, and Saka is obviously one of the gems in that regard. Without wanting to descend into misery, one of the important parts of this project is creating a team that he (and others) want to play for in the long-term. He has the talent and personality that one of the disgusting filthy rich clubs will pay massive money for, so we have to ensure that he feels like he can fulfill his personal ambitions with us.

I’ve been ruminating on that Edu interview over the weekend, and it’s obvious that it’s a reaction to everything that’s happened in the last few weeks – the transfer window, the ins and outs, and the start to the season. The fact that it was done with an external channel was smart. If it was exactly the same interview with the exact same questions but on arsenal.com, it would be too easily dismissed as propaganda – again, understandably. The platform makes a difference in how it’s perceived.

The aspects of it that resonate with me, resonate strongly. The idea of growing a young team isn’t new or ground-breaking in any way, but it feels coherent – and a lot of what we’ve done in recent years has not. We’ve been far too reactive, desperately trying to cling onto what we used to be, rather than being brave enough to admit we’re not that anymore and reinventing ourselves in order to make progress.

The one aspect of it that doesn’t quite come together for me is the experience required to glue it all together. Edu named Granit Xhaka, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette, Bernd Leno and Thomas Partey as key figures to this plan, and this is where I have some concern/doubts.

Lacazette is running out his contract and will, in all likelihood leave next summer; Leno’s situation is far from ideal, and he’s just seen the club spend £24m on a goalkeeper to replace him; Xhaka is a deeply flawed player/individual who may be considered some kind of leader by those in charge, but whose behaviour consistently belies that; Aubameyang is the captain but I think it’s almost by default because of his age/stature, and I’m not sure it’s something that comes naturally to him even if, I’m sure, he fully understands the privilege of the position; and finally Partey has to stay fit and play regularly – something which has been an issue since his arrival.

I will say this: I don’t think the experience is the platform on which this thing is being built. It feels like they are more the icing on the cake, but that’s still a hugely important part of the entire process. There are also mid-range players, like Calum Chambers, Rob Holding, Pablo Mari, Cedric etc, who have to play a part, and they’re less than convincing elements right now. So, I don’t think the challenge for Mikel Arteta is the young, enthusiastic players who want to play and will give you everything, it’s those other pieces of the puzzle whose motivations – for various reasons – might not align with this kind of project.

Anyway, I’ll discuss this in more detail with James later on. We’re recording the Arsecast Extra in the late afternoon, so the podcast should be out by early evening. Join us for that, for now, take it easy.

The post Monday round-up: Arsenal Women, Saka, Edu’s project appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Happy Interlull Sunday to you.

I feel like everyone needs a day off. Even Ferris Bueller got one, and he was an absolute dick.

So I’m taking day off. Here are some fresh arses to play with.

Till tomorrow.

ps – I have not gone fishing. I have never gone fishing in my life. I like the idea of being on a boat at sea on a warm day, bobbing up and down with a beer in my hand but it’s just much easier to go to a fishmonger and buy fish than it is to catch them. Plus, I don’t want to hurt their mouths. I feel like it’d be more humane to shoot them in the head but I don’t have, or want, a gun.

pps – I suppose I could whittle some kind of harpoon but again, it’s pretty brutal.

ppps – I think I’ll just make some dough and cook up some pizzas on the Ooni. I don’t have to massacre anything for that.

pppps – Yes, I know where pepperoni comes from but that’s only relevant if that’s what I put on it. I reckon I’ll just go with a classic margherita.

ppppps – Mmm, margarita. Better check I’ve got some limes.

Have a good one.

pppppps – If there’s any news we’ll cover it on Arseblog News.

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