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

In this episode we discuss the weekend postponement of the North London derby, the Premier League rules, the outcry and furore that surrounded the decision, and the way it unified the reaction among Arsenal fans to what was unfair criticism of the club. We talk more broadly about whether games should be played in these circumstances, potential rule changes and when they can be, as well as answering listener questions about midfield transfer options, William Saliba, the impact of Covid on footballers, Matteo Guendouzi, a hilarious FIFA soundtrack (if true) and lots more.

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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.

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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.

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This Arsecast Extra was recorded with ipDTL

The post Arsecast Extra Episode 453 – 17.01.2022 appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Morning all. Welcome to a brand new week.

I don’t think there’s much more to say about the whole postponement thing, nothing fresh to add from yesterday’s post really, but it was still quite something to see plenty of people who are actually employed to talk and write about football fail to grasp the fundamental issue that the rules are the problem, not one football club operating within those rules. Arsenal Twitter was ALIVE this weekend, and while I’m not one to condone any kind of pile on, if your uniformed hot-take generated a similar hot reaction then that’s very much on you. Don’t poke a hornet’s nest and then complain you got stung.

I didn’t watch much else yesterday, but Micah Richards had it spot on – every other club would do exactly the same:

"In my opinion they've done nothing wrong, let's be honest, other clubs would do the same thing, it's not an Arsenal thing. Every team in the Premier League would look after themselves and if they say they wouldn't then they're lying."@MicahRichards on the NLD postponement pic.twitter.com/9kRCcY4KrP

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) January 16, 2022

It doesn’t mean people have to like it. In fact, more opposition to terrible rules and things which take away from what football is supposed to be about would be welcome. Even if you accept the contention that the North London derby postponement was a straw that broke the camel’s back moment, hammering home how poor these current rules are, the focus should be on the people who put them in place, not one club who – again – did nothing wrong within said guidelines.

Anyway, it is what it is now. There are vast swathes of people out there who think Arsenal cheated, and there’s not much we can do about that. The idea that we get favourable treatment from the authorities is quite hilarious too. Hopefully though, the Premier League can gets its thinking cap on (to replace the Dunce one they’ve been wearing for too long now), and make sure that unless there is a significant outbreak of Covid at a club (still a good reason for a postponement), that the games go ahead. I don’t know if new rules can be applied mid-season, I suspect probably not, so it might be something for next season.

Assuming Covid hasn’t just gone away by then, it’s a reality we’re going to have to deal with, so there should be more thought about how we go forward from here. Another consideration is that having had a chunk of players out with Covid in the last month or so, have some of the injury issues we’ve suffered been related to that? Smaller squad to choose from, some of them playing through aches/strains that they might not ordinarily, and thus exacerbating those problems? Maybe that’s something the manager might answer when he meets the press this week ahead of the Liverpool game on Thursday, but he’s often quite guarded about fitness – at least in terms of specifics. Let’s see.

—

Moving back towards football, and in particular the transfer market, I’m interested to see if anything will happen this week. It doesn’t seem like there’s anything that’s particularly close. Obviously there’s been a lot going on at the club in the last few days, but you’d like to think that those tasked with strengthening the squad this month haven’t been distracted by matters which shouldn’t be their top priority.

On the Arsecast Extra on Friday, James mentioned this Financial Times piece with the owner of Fiorentina, and it’s well worth a read as we wonder whether or not Dusan Vlahovic is a realistic signing this month. He doesn’t sound like a man who is going to take much nonsense from agents, while depending on what you read, there are all kinds of agents and middlemen tied up in the Vlahovic situation. At the very least, it makes this one quite complicated, and I have a suspicion that we’re being led down the garden path a bit by his entourage.

If that is the case, do we have alternatives for January? There’s not a lot out there if you look for a striker on loan, and suggestions we’re after Diego Costa of all people sum that up perfectly. It’s tough enough to get the striker you want in the summer transfer market, trying to convince a club to part with someone who is likely a key player for them mid-season is even more difficult. I guess there is the Lucas Torreira aspect to this, he’s on loan there, and we have a working relationship with the Fiorentina, but I don’t think this is a deal that would fall down between the clubs as much as the Vlahovic camp being the sticky part of it all.

As for midfield, we should get some clarity on the Arthur loan deal, but I do like links to Leicester’s Youri Tielemans. He’s a nice player, he has 18 months left on his current deal (and there appears to be some uncertainty about his future), and he’d be a decent addition. Again though, can it be done in January?

Finally, weekend reports that we’re after Middlesbrough’s right-back Djed Spence are quite funny. He’s on loan at Nottingham Forest and was absolutely brilliant for them in the FA Cup game last week, but given he’s played for both Forest and Boro this season means he can’t play for a third club in one season. Maybe one for the summer, but it feels like a classic of the ‘had a good game against Arsenal so we should buy him’ genre.

—

Right, let’s leave it there for now. Despite no action yesterday, James and I will be recording the Arsecast Extra later on, so 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.

Pod should be out by lunchtime. Until then, take it easy.

The post Weekend round-up + Transfer round-up appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Morning, a quick Sunday blog for you because obviously there is no North London derby to preview.

After Arsenal’s application for a postponement was made on Friday afternoon, the Premier League announced their decision almost 24 hours later. Quite what took them so long is anybody’s guess. Perhaps they’d had a late night at Club Johnson on the Friday, rocking to the sick beats of the Downing Street DJ or something. There was a suggestion that they didn’t want to announce anything while there was another game on, like the fans of Chelsea and Man City – who were playing at the time – would have somehow been upset by this.

The statement, when it came, made it perfectly clear that the postponement had been made in line with Premier League rules, yet by the reaction of some people, you’d swear Arsenal had set fire to a van full of puppies, laughing maniacally and twiddling our evil moustache while tying the Premier League damsel in distress to the train tracks. Sp*rs were said to be ‘furious’ and ‘angry’, again the implication that Arsenal had done something contrary to the regulations.

Let me say this: I couldn’t give a shit. There are experienced reporters out there who should know better than to publish some of the nonsense they came out with. If you want to complain about something, use your platform responsibly to talk about the rules. As I said yesterday, I think any club with just a couple of Covid cases should play, using players from their Academy to bolster the numbers. If you want to be angry, be angry at the Premier League who have cooked up these half-baked guidelines which allow this to happen.

Within that framework, Arsenal did nothing wrong. Not a single thing. Don’t talk about it being morally scandalous from our side when you’ve said nothing similar about all the other games being called off. I get more people want to see a North London derby than Burnley v Leicester, but that game was postponed 24 hours before our one and there was practically zero coverage of that. Same rules, same decision, very different reaction.

Is it shit for fans? Yes. Whose fault is that though? Not Arsenal’s. It’s the Premier League. The inconvenience of the home fans this weekend is unfortunate for them, but it was the exact same for the Arsenal fans whose plans for the Wolves game were ruined when that game didn’t go ahead. The reason: they didn’t have enough players, the same way we don’t have enough players – as per the existing rules – for this weekend’s game.

Arsenal were quite transparent too. We didn’t say we had a load of Covid cases. We didn’t have ‘suspected’ cases. We didn’t produce a plethora of very suspicious false positives. It was clear throughout that due to Covid + injuries + AFCON absences we didn’t have the numbers. Granit Xhaka being out because of suspension isn’t taken into consideration when the Premier League make their decision, so it’s not a talking point.

So, if you’re a football reporter and you’re concentrating on how this is some kind of failing on the part of Arsenal, you’re either doing it for #numbers or you’re being willingly obtuse. The rules are wrong, so talk about how the rules need to change. If you’re truly concerned about the integrity of the game and the welfare of fans, that’s what you’d be railing against rather than puking out some of the populist, unthinking, half-witted shite I’ve seen since the announcement was eventually made. You wouldn’t start bleating on about Lasagne-gate, something which happened nearly 16 years ago and which has no relevance to anything.

Frankly though, they can take their Tweets, print them out, fashion them into some kind of Papier-mache object, and stick them up their holes. What a bunch of absolute bollocks. But I’ve also quite enjoyed it. There have been more than a few incidents this season which have united the Arsenal fanbase, and given how we can divide ourselves over the tiniest things, it’s far preferable to all the in-fighting. I hope this is something those inside the club can make hay from too, a siege mentality, an us against them mindset which could be useful.

As George Graham once said, “It’s fine that people hate us. It’s part of our history.”

Somehow, during a pandemic which has disrupted dozens of football games in the last few weeks, Arsenal are the real villains here. That’s fine. If that’s the way some people want to see it, leave them on. It’s much easier to single out and ‘other’ one group than actually focus on the dreadful job the game’s authorities have made of dealing with this entire thing. On the opening day of the season, Arsenal had to play Brentford with more Covid cases than many of the recent postponements, including our two senior strikers, but we had to play. We lost as Sky Sports pundits cavorted and sang with the home fans at the end like it was all some big laugh, so if they’re now outraged by Arsenal quite literally playing by the rules, they can get bent.

Have a great Sunday Arsenal fans. As for the football ‘Intelligentsia‘, I couldn’t give a fish’s tit.

Till tomorrow.

*but also go f*ck yourselves

The post Be mad at the rules, not Arsenal* appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

The only place to start this morning is Arsenal’s application to the Premier League to have Sunday’s North London derby postponed. The official statement reads:

We can confirm we have made an application to the Premier League for the postponement of Sunday’s north London derby against Tottenham Hotspur.

We have reluctantly taken this step but we have many players currently unavailable across our squad as a result of Covid, injuries and players away with their countries at AFCON.

We will provide more information as soon as it’s available.

The Premier League board are meeting today to make a decision, and you’d imagine they’ll be doing that as early as possible. Obviously there has been a reaction, Sp*rs are said to be ‘angry’, I’m sure fans are disgruntled too, and across the media – via my Twitter timeline at least – there has been far more coverage of this application for a proposal than any of the other actual postponements which happened.

Gary Neville, having spoken about it at length on TV last night said, Tweeted, “This is not about Arsenal but all teams should be made to play from now on in the PL and EFL. Also why has the decision been delayed until today when the request was last night at 6.30pm. Fans will be setting off from all over the place and will be in limbo!”

I completely understand the last part, there’s no reason why the Premier League board couldn’t have convened last night and made a decision. On the first point though, I have to disagree. This is a mess of the Premier League’s making. They have set a precedent with previous decisions, and you can’t then shift the goalposts mid-season.

Let me be clear: I think very strongly that unless a club has an outbreak of Covid cases which affect the numbers of players available (for all the obvious reasons), the games should go ahead. Clubs have Academies, they have players who could help them fulfil the fixtures. However, the Premier League have fudged the whole Covid issue from the start. There was never any clarity as to what the threshold for a postponement was. Games were being called off and we had no idea what the rules were.

Then we were told it had to be 13 players, or whatever it is, but again there was no transparency to the decisions that were being made. Games were postponed and maybe there were some Covid cases, but often it was Covid + injuries + suspension + other absences and these applications were granted. From the very start there should have been clear guidelines around an issue that anybody with a brain could see was going to crop up again.

We have been in the clutches of a pandemic for nearly two years now. As society opened up with the benefit of vaccines etc, it was inevitable that a highly transmissible virus was going to penetrate the bubble that allowed football to carry on when everyone else was locked down. We knew of the possibility of more waves, of variants. Neville said that he should have spoken out about this three or four weeks ago, and that’s right to an extent. When you do it now, having more or less ignored all the other postponements, it doesn’t sound credible. Especially when you’re speaking into a Sky Sports microphone, the rights holders who have a vested interest in a big London derby going ahead on Sunday. And even more when you have little to say about Burnley’s game with Leicester actually being called off at the same time as our application was made.

Look at all the fixtures at the top of this page which need to be rearranged. Where was that energy for all of those? But this really isn’t about a former footballer who loved to moan having a moan in front of the camera because he loves moaning. It shouldn’t be on Gary Neville to have said something three or four weeks ago. This is a mess of the Premier League’s making, because of their ostrich like approach to Covid and the impact it might have on the football calendar. An ad-hoc/make it up as you go along approach to dealing with a pandemic isn’t smart. There should have been high level discussions about various potential scenarios and what the response would be. There should have been absolute transparency and clarity to the guidelines and the decision making process. There wasn’t, and here we are.

So while I understand the frustration – because Arsenal have had fixtures postponed on us too – we’re only doing what other teams have done. The Premier League have allowed clubs to game the system and while I’m not saying that’s right, you can’t change the rules mid-season just because a high profile Super Sunday fixture is in jeopardy.

The final thing I’ll say is this: over the last few weeks, Mikel Arteta’s messaging has been really clear. He said over and over that he wants to play the games. Let’s not forget that we had to face Man City without our manager and a number of his staff on the sideline. We have had positive Covid cases for around 8-10 players over the last few weeks (if my maths is right), and we’ve fulfilled those fixtures. So, for everyone to start clutching their pearls and heading for the fainting couches because we’ve requested a postponement is a bit much if you ask me.

As for what decision the Premier League will come to, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the bleating from Sky Sports’ shop-steward has an impact and we have to play. If that’s the case, so be it, but it won’t be forgotten how there appear to be different rules for some than others. Let’s see.

We’ll bring you the news on that decision on Arseblog News as soon as we get it. For now, enjoy your Saturday.

The post Arsenal seek postponement as others seek to change the rules mid-season appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

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

In this episode we discuss the 0-0 draw with Liverpool in the first leg of our Carabao Cup semi-final. We chat about the strong team we faced versus the much depleted side we could send out, wax lyrical over the way we responded and defended having gone down to 10 men and while focusing on the collective spirit and quality we showed, there’s some extra praise for Ben White who was superb on the night. There is the inevitable discussion of Granit Xhaka, the red card, and what the consequences are – but we talk about why the sending off happened from a footballing perspective. Then we answer listener questions about Dusan Vlahovic, the character of the team, Jack Wilshere as a short-term midfield option, Bernd Leno and lots more.

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 452 – 14.01.2022 appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Match report – Player ratings – Manager reaction

I will admit there were times yesterday when I feared the worst. Our recent record against Liverpool hasn’t been great, and when I saw their team selection – as strong as it gets bar Salah and Mane – I feared the worst. When I saw that we were going into this game without a Covid hit Martin Odegaard, as well as Emile Smith Rowe, Takehiro Tomiyasu, and all the other absences, I feared the worst. When Granit Xhaka went full Granit Xhaka and got himself sent off, I feared the worst. Worse than the worst, if that’s possible. Mega-worst. Hyper-worst. Maroon5-worst.

However, the Arsenal players who remained on the pitch deserve huge credit for a genuinely superb defensive effort. I think it’s fair to say this wasn’t Liverpool at their absolute best, but in no small part that’s down to how well we stayed organised, producing the kind of backs-to-the-wall performance I wasn’t really sure we were capable of.

I heard Paul Merson talk on Sky afterwards about how it was relatively simple for Arsenal, that all we had to do was sit in and defend, and while it was certainly clear what way we had to play, actually pulling that off is another thing entirely. It is difficult. It requires a massive physical effort and relentless concentration. That this Liverpool team, at home, in front of their fans, boosted by their lack of Covid cases which they probably never had in the first place, ended up with just a single shot on target tells you just how well we did.

I think their perspective will be different, and they’ll look at this as a game in which they performed poorly, but they knocked on the door time and time again and couldn’t find a way through. Arsenal’s defenders mopped it up. Calum Chambers, an early sub for Cedric, looked like he was running through treacle at first, but ended up making 8 clearances. Ben White, 3 tackles, 3 blocked shots, 3 interceptions, 7 clearances. Rob Holding 5 clearances, Gabriel 5 clearances, Kieran Tierney 5 clearances.

But this wasn’t just the defence, this was a collective effort. A team that defended from the front. Alexandre Lacazette 3 clearances. Gabriel Martinelli with as many tackles as Ben White. Bukayo Saka doing his defensive duty and still managing to provide some threat, perhaps he should have scored that one in the second half after a brilliant Tierney pass, but if his touch was a bit off because of all the running he had to put in up and down the pitch, you could understand it.

Liverpool threw on fresh legs in the second half, a triple sub, while we had nobody really to call on from the bench. Nuno Tavares came on late when Saka just couldn’t give any more, and there was a moment when the Mugsmashers should surely have scored, the ball falling for Minamino with the goal at his mercy but he sliced it over the bar. Ben White laughed. Oh, how he laughed. On a night when you’re always going to need a little bit of luck, we got it, but we deserved it given the way we played and the effort we put in.

As for the red card, it’s a red card, especially when you consider the player involved. Granit Xhaka is an existential problem for Arsenal. As it stands, given our paucity of midfield options, we need him and he is important, but at the same time he’s a liability. Whether it’s right or not, he is refereed on his own merits. The ‘If That Was Granit Xhaka’ index is a bit of a joke, but it’s also not. Maybe another player gets the benefit of the doubt over that challenge, although I think booting an opponent chest high as he’s running through on goal is likely to be a sending off pretty much every time. It was clumsy even by Xhaka’s standards – and the fact he actually apologised afterwards for the first time I can ever remember, tells you plenty.

Yet how long can Arsenal persist with a player who never, ever going to be given the benefit of any doubt by officials? Perhaps it’s not fair, but it is what it is. You know it, I know it, Xhaka knows it, Arteta knows it, everyone knows it. It’s his reality, but it’s also our reality. At 29 this particular leopard is not going to change his spots, the acts of on-pitch stupidity, the moments of clumsiness, are not going to go away and the team suffers the consequences. Last night it was having to play an energy-sapping hour at Anfield with 10 men. Today it will be tired legs, fatigue and muscle strains because of that, and this weekend it will be a North London derby without a senior player as he starts a two match ban leaving us with just one recognised central midfielder.

As for the incident, I have some sympathy with the contention he was left a bit exposed, and that’s true, but this is the way we play. We push high, and part of the job Xhaka is instructed do is provide cover. Fair play, he saw the danger, he chased back, but he lacks the pace and the athleticism to defend that situation, and his decision making in the moment isn’t good enough – hence the chest high challenge which brought about the red. It was a moment which highlighted exactly why a priority this summer has to be a central midfielder. It’s not just the red card, it’s what he’s missing from his game in general too. The two are obviously interlinked, but that was a perfect example of our need to upgrade in that key position.

Nevertheless, it would be wrong to finish this morning on that negative note, because what we should focus on is how well everyone else did in his absence. Afterwards, Mikel Arteta said:

I’m extremely proud of what the boys did today in an extremely difficult stadium against a great opponent, and playing 70 minutes with 10 men. It was about fight, spirit, commitment and as well the quality that they showed to play a game that is not in our strength and not in what we trained, but it was necessary to win.

It wasn’t a win, obviously, but you can understand why it felt like it. He repeatedly used the words ‘spirit’ and ‘fight’, throwing in a ‘brotherhood’ in along the way, talking about his team ‘going to war’ and at the end you could see how much it meant to the players to keep Liverpool at bay, and have it all still to play for in the second leg. From fearing the worst, we could celebrate perhaps the best we could hope for in the circumstances, but able to take plenty from individual performances as well as an almost flawless collective one after we went down to 10 men.

What kind of shape we’re in for Sunday remains to be seen. The manager said we’d picked up a couple of injuries, on top of existing absences, Covid cases and all the rest, we might be down to the very bare bones for the derby, but let’s see what happens over the next couple of days.

For now, we can give the lads who stayed on the pitch the plaudits they deserve, to go along with the travelling fans who were brilliant throughout, and see how everyone is tomorrow.

—

Right, let’s leave it there. James and I will be recording the Arsecast Extra later on, so 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.

Pod should be out by lunchtime. Until then, take it easy.

The post Liverpool 0-0 Arsenal: No false positives as 10 man Gunners earn a draw appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Join us for live blog coverage of our Carabao Cup clash with Liverpool, kick-off 19.45

We’ve got up to the second live text commentary, updates, goal clips, observations and occasionally witty asides. If you want to join the chat, register an Arseblog Live account.

To do that, go to Arseblog Live – click login on the top right, and then choose ‘sign up’ to complete the process with your username/password, or you can use your Twitter, Facebook or Google account to register.

You can also get Twitter updates of key events – goals, cards, substitutions etc – by following @arseblog_live

CLICK TO LAUNCH Liverpool v Arsenal – LIVE BLOG

The post Liverpool v Arsenal – live blog appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

I don’t know if it’s just a consequence of the times we’re living in, or something more deliberate, but specificity in terms of team news is in short supply these days. I suspect it might be a little from Column A, a little from Column B, but at his press conference yesterday, Mikel Arteta described the situation as ‘volatile’ when speaking about the availability of players for tonight:

I don’t know what the situation is that we will have today or if it is different to yesterday. Obviously I cannot get into any detail with that. It is what it is, in the last week or so we lost so many players for many different reasons and we are trying to adapt to that. I will use the players that we have and make the most out of it.

Some injuries, some Covid, some absences with players that have to be away with the African Cup of Nations.

Which is to say it’s hard to predict what kind of a team we’re going to put out this evening, not to mention the fact we have a North London derby on Sunday. Liverpool’s false positives have skewed the way I look at this cup tie now. Yes, it’s a semi-final, and having gone out of the FA Cup on Sunday, it has grown in importance when it comes to our chances of silverware this season, but I find it hard to look beyond Sunday as the most important game of the week. Had this first leg taken place when it should have – and there’s no doubt in my kind it could have (but we’ll never know for sure) – I’d have gone really strong in the first leg. Now, I’m not so certain.

As I mentioned yesterday, players who have been sidelined through injury might return tonight but there’s also a measure of risk. On Emile Smith Rowe, for example, Arteta said:

He’s had an issue that he’s been carrying and obviously that’s been affecting his ability to train, his ability to compete, the amount of minutes that we can give him and we are trying to get that situation resolved as quickly as possible, because we need the best version of Emile for us to be successful.

I could be wrong, of course, and the manager is privy to more information regarding player fitness than any of us, but that doesn’t sound like a player who can do 90 minutes tonight then again on Sunday. For me, having him around for the derby is more important. Similarly, Takehiro Tomiyasu who has been carrying a calf problem for a couple of weeks now could probably play tonight but what if that means he can’t do the next game? It’s certainly a headache for the manager, deciding on how much risk you can take for a game you want to win before you play a game you really have to make sure you don’t lose – at the very least.

Midfield may well be a problem this evening. We don’t know if Granit Xhaka will be available. From what Arteta was saying, it doesn’t seem like he will be, but maybe he’s playing his cards close to his chest, giving nothing away beforehand. If he is, it solves a significant problem because the alternative is a young player who isn’t quite ready yet, or shifting other players around to fill that gap. Beyond that, your guess is as good as mine with regards the selection.

I suspect the manager might look at this next couple of weeks in two chunks: let’s give as much as possible for the Liverpool and Sp*rs games, then see where we are on Monday and assess what we can expect to do for the second leg and the Burnley game. After that, there’s a bit of a gap in the fixture list, although I’d expect one of our postponed games to scheduled at some point.

Liverpool are weakened up front with the absences of Salah and Mane, but they’re certainly not weak. This will be a tough game, away from home, against a team that will look at the cups with more interest given their title chances are now extremely slim. We obviously need much, much better than we got at Forest on Sunday, so let’s hope there’s a response, a better performance, a decent result, and a clean bill of health afterwards. It sounds like a lot to ask, but there you go.

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

—

For some extra reading this morning, Tim’s column looks at the challenge we face when it comes to back-up players/squad depth.

Mikel Arteta speaks about Nuno Tavares (and it sounds like a line has been drawn under that situation, which is good), as well as transfers and the club’s ability to attract the best players. We might see more evidence of that this month, fingers crossed. The Vlahovic stuff rumbles on, and it seems as if a loan move for Juventus midfielder Arthur is on the cards – probably the best kind of solution we can hope for this month, especially if we’re looking to go all in on the striker signing early.

Finally for this morning, there’s a preview podcast available right now over on Patreon, so get that into ya if you’re a member, and if not, you can sign up for instant access.

Right, I’ll leave it there. Back here tomorrow with post-Liverpool analysis and an extra Arsecast Extra. Until then.

The post Carabao Cup semi-final preview: Selection complications appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Following Arsenal’s limp 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest on Sunday, a lot has been said and written about the quality (or lack thereof) of Arsenal’s ‘depth players.’ It’s always difficult to judge how good your backup players actually are because they usually play infrequently and, when they do so, they play in unfamiliar, disjointed teams with lots of other players that play infrequently.

Arsenal went into the Forest game with a midfield double pivot of Albert Sambi Lokonga and Charlie Patino, which was always going to lead to fluency issues. A midfield of Elneny plus one of Lokonga or Maitland Niles probably sees Arsenal through the tie. In cup games, you can generally hide inexperience in the interior of the team but it is luminous in the spine- much in the way that you can probably limp on with a bad ankle or foot but if your back is banjaxed, you’re not getting much further than the sofa.

This is the vicious cycle of the squad player, you only get to strut your stuff in suboptimal conditions, once every few weeks and when you don’t do enough to impress, you shuffle back into your bench coat and settle in for another watching brief. Players rarely break into first teams off the back of such occasions, usually an injury in the big boys XI is the favoured route.

Take Nuno Tavares, who kept Kieran Tierney out of the starting line-up for four consecutive Premier League games in November and early December. Against Forest, he suffered the ignominy of being sacrificed during the first half. Managing squad players is one of the most delicate matters for the modern coach, how to keep a group of players who play so infrequently motivated and in good shape to contribute when required?

Mikel Arteta and Edu performed wholesale surgery on the starting eleven over the last two summers, with Ramsdale, Gabriel, White, Tomiyasu, Partey and Odegaard all signed for the base of the team, while Smith Rowe and Saka have become bona fide starts within that timeframe too. It stands to reason that addressing the first eleven was the most urgent part of the Arsenal rebuild.

A long-term striker option and, at least eventually, a Granit Xhaka replacement are surely the next pillars required for the starting team. After all, Xhaka and Lacazette are pretty much the final starting eleven players that Arteta inherited alongside Tierney. In the meantime, some surgery is required for the squad players, most of whom Arteta inherited and have their secondary status because they cannot quite execute what he requires.

Some futureproofing was also addressed in the most recent summer window with Albert Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares coming in. I have always maintained that young and academy players are the optimal choices for back up players. First of all, they tend to be more patient and willing to accept such a role in the short-term.

They have something to work towards, career wise, as they seek to push towards first-team football. We have seen many, many times at Arsenal that having senior professionals in these roles just doesn’t work (and it’s also not cost effective). Any player that signs for the club on this basis in or after the peak years of their career is essentially looking after their pension (which they are entitled to do, of course).

Young players tend to be hungrier and more willing to move on when it becomes clear that they won’t quite make the grade, which aids squad regeneration. Joe Willock and Alex Iwobi were sold at a tidy profit. On Sunday, a justifiably impatient Ainsley Maitland-Niles played for Roma against Juventus, while Cedric Soares played at right-back for Arsenal at the City Ground. One of those players was very keen to move on and progress in his career.

Of course, with younger backup players you experience not just a quality drop off when your main pillars are absent but an experience dip too. Besides which, no academy is fruitful enough to fill out an entire squad. Players like Rob Holding, Pablo Mari and Mohamed Elneny are necessary. The issue with a lot of Arsenal’s current, more experienced squad players is that they have that status precisely because their footballing halos have slipped.

Calum Chambers, Sead Kolasinac and Nicolas Pepe weren’t supposed to be squad players, they have just shown that they cannot meet Mikel Arteta’s demands for myriad reasons. ‘Squad player’ is not a deliberate role for them like it is Elneny or Holding, who are occasionally rotated into the first eleven without duress. It’s a hairshirt that they wear.

Arteta’s inexperience has, at times, exacerbated this issue too. Too often he has dithered or flip-flopped on the value of players, such as Maitland-Niles, who was so desperate to leave Arsenal that he wouldn’t stick around for the cup ties with Forest or Liverpool. Arteta never came to a firm enough conclusion on Nketiah to either sell for good money or offer an attractive contract to until it was too late. Now he will walk away on a free transfer.

Calum Chambers went from bona fide first choice right-back to total outcast incredibly quickly. I am sure the Tomiyasu signing was always desirable to the manager but, that being the case, Chambers really ought to have been sold for decent money last summer, with his stock as a right-back relatively high. If the first three games of the season were enough for Arteta to relegate Chambers from first choice to the ghost at the feast, he was clearly never properly convinced of his quality.

That’s where the Technical Director will have to be stronger too. ‘If you can’t tell me exactly how this guy is a crucial cog then he is on the transfer list’ might be an overly simplistic rule of thumb but Arsenal need to get closer to that end of the wedge. An Nketiah sale could have been helping to fund a move for Vlahovic (or whoever else) right now.

Instead Nketiah and Lacazette will both leave for free. Arteta and Edu should take inspiration and assurance from the way that the Joe Willock sale paid for Martin Odegaard. That is how you regenerate a squad. Really your squad players should turn over sharply, you don’t really want players willing to execute this role for a prolonged period.

Arsenal have slightly handicapped themselves as a result, as they look to address the next phase of this squad build (and let’s give Arteta and Edu their due, the business they did last summer was impressive by and large). Buying a striker and a central midfielder are the most important facets but they will need to apply a layer of varnish underneath the first team too.

A lot of these squad players will be leaving now- due to expiring contracts mainly. Buying back up players is a delicate business because ideally you want someone who can really challenge and push for regular inclusion, as opposed to accepting cheques and being satisfied with the odd cup game here and there.

The task of managing the squad players has been made more difficult by the absence of the Europa League group stage but if Arsenal want Champions League football again, the idea of playing the stiffs in Europe will no longer fly anyway. How Arsenal replace the likes of Nketiah, Chambers, Kolasinac, Elneny and Maitland-Niles (maybe even Mari and Pepe) is a sub plot for Arsenal’s ambitions- but it’s a very intriguing one.

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Our pre-Liverpool presser takes place this morning. Personally, I’d like Mikel Arteta to come out and announce that we’re seeking a postponement due to a load of ‘suspected’ cases of Covid … via the medium of rap.

Surrounded by dozens of double-lined tests, he whips out a mic and starts giving it large to some sick beats:

“You down with LFT (yeah you know me).”

I don’t think I’d like that at all, actually. It’s just the LFT thing got in my head this morning when YouTube threw up a suggestion. Why am I looking at YouTube at 6am? I was just closing some tabs and there it was. I only had about 48 tabs open in my browser but still needed a bit of space to work. The good thing is that this song now in your head for the day. It could be worse though, it’s a cracker.

We’ll get some update from Mikel Arteta about our midfield situation and whether or not Granit Xhaka is available. Honestly, this man is something else. I know we’re light because of Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny being at AFCON, and the departure of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, but how does he end up being so important while at the same time a player I’d love us to move on from? Right now, like it or not, he is important. We’re almost dependent on him but of course it depends on whether or not he’s available after catching Covid again, and well enough if there were some effects from the virus.

If he’s not, the manager has got some serious thinking to do about his team, and with a North London derby on the horizon too, he has to consider if using some players who are dealing with injury problems is wise. Let’s be clear, I’d rather not see Cedric but I want Takehiro Tomiyasu available for the North London derby. Would you take a dollop of Cedric tomorrow to ensure Tomi was fully fit for Sp*rs? That’s a difficult choice. I know I want the latter, but I don’t want to experience the former. Maybe we could play Calum Chambers at right back even though he hasn’t played a lick since August really. On the plus side, he’s not Cedric.

A Xhaka-less midfield tomorrow would mean moving pieces around. I don’t think you can throw Charlie Patino in again, so the return of Emile Smith Rowe might help, but again he’s someone who has been dealing with an ongoing groin problem – hence his lack of playing time lately – and if he twangs his bits at Anfield, how he is going to score two and get two assists on Sunday? It’s quite the conundrum.

Anyway, lots of stuff for the manager to get on with – rap or not – in his press conference, and we’ll have all the stories this morning over on Arseblog News.

—

Moving on to transfer gossip, and there’s some stuff about Eddie Nketiah and Crystal Palace again. A report in The Times said the two parties were ‘in talks’ about a move, but it’s all very vague. His move there in the summer broke down over personal terms, and with a summer Bosman looming, I’d be very surprised if a) Palace paid any money now for a player they can get for free in 5 months and b) Eddie decided his future in January rather than at the end of his contract when he’s likely to have more to choose from.

Whatever he decides though, his recent opportunities have given him chances to impress and to make important contributions, but he fluffed his lines with close-range headers – the kind of penalty box chances he’s supposed to be clinical with. Sometimes – like at Everton – it’s the width of a post that can tilt a player’s future one way or the other, but the ball splatting off his face against Forest when it should have been in the back of the net was the kind of miss that makes you think his mind is elsewhere right now. You have to score those if you’re really staking a claim for a new contract at a club, he didn’t, and I think that says plenty about what we need and what’s best for him.

Elsewhere, the are reports that Udinese are interested in Pablo Mari on loan, and like Cedric he’s another player whose bags I’d happily pack. He hasn’t been seen since Romelu Lukaku looked at him sternly and made him fall over back in August, and like strikers missing chances, moments like that can define a defender’s career. I don’t know how much a loan benefits us, particularly as we’d then have no established back-up for Gabriel, but then I don’t know who would actually buy him either. Rob Holding can cover, and Tomiyasu plays centre-half for Japan on a regular basis so he could do a job if needed, but then that leaves a big hole at right-back and we return to the C word again and nobody wants that. Surely summer is the time, even if we have deemed him surplus to requirements.

Suffice to say that we have some quality issues when it comes to some of our squad players. The best we can hope for between now and May is the main men stay fit and available, and if we do have to use those lower down the pecking order, it’s not for any sustained period.

Finally, there’s Vlahovic mayhem with information coming from all kinds of places but it’s hard to know how to parse the situation as a whole. It feels like there are people involved whose first interest is to make serious money off the entire deal, and while I know that’s part and parcel of the way football works, there’s a line in the sand when it comes to that kind of thing, and it does set some alarm bells ringing in my mind. I hope Arsenal have other targets this month because –while I might be wrong – this feels like one where you’d be wise not to have all your eggs in one basket.

Right, that’s your lot for this morning.

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Before we recorded the podcast yesterday, I re-watched the first half so I could take a closer look at Nuno Tavares’ performance. Watching the game live, I thought he was poor – that bad back-pass to Bernd Leno left a big stain on my perception of how he played.

Second time around though, I didn’t really see why he was deemed so bad he had to be hauled off before half-time. There’s a stat going around about how he gave the ball away 9 times, but bar one loss of possession on the halfway line, it’s difficult to tally that with what I saw. There were some passes which didn’t quite find their target and I suppose they count against him statistically, but nothing genuinely abysmal. Nor did I see a lack of effort, which I could 100% understand culminating in that decision. When he needed to get back, he got back.

Inside the City Ground on Sunday, James was sitting on that side and wasn’t at all surprised that he was taken off. The unknown factor here is what he was being told by the manager who was on that touchline, and how he was responding to that instruction. We know Mikel Arteta has a tendency to micromanage at times, and it could well be based on that as much as what he did or didn’t do with the ball.

I’m curious to see what happens next. I hope this could be a storm in a teacup kind of thing. The squad is light enough as it is, and we can’t lose any more players. Then again, I thought that might be the case with the Aubameyang stuff lately, and look where we are with that. It’s worth pointing out that when he did have a run in the side this season, Tavares looked promising, and even when he made a couple of mistakes against Liverpool and Man Utd, Arteta kept faith with him when he had a better player in Kieran Tierney waiting in the wings. So, fingers crossed the frustration felt by both manager and player is confined to the very short-term and we can move on and put this behind us.

I wonder too if the 90 minutes and some of the other performances might play a part in how this plays out. Arteta has always said mistakes aren’t really the big issue, it’s how a player responds to them. There have been worse performances in the past under Arteta than Tavares against Forest (in fact both Cedric and Holding ended up being way worse on the night and both were culpable for their goal with some tame ‘defending’); there have been players who have made mistakes that were far more costly than Nuno’s back-pass; there have been outbursts and behaviours that were more disrespectful than some gloves being thrown on the ground in a moment of complete and understandable frustration. So, let’s see how this plays out, and hope that a squad which already needs a boost isn’t hit with another absence.

—

Speaking of boosting the squad, whatever happens, it’s unlikely to go down before the weekend and almost certainly not going to happen before Thursday’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg. How ‘strong’ we are in midfield will depend almost entirely on Granit Xhaka’s availability, and his Covid status. Will he be out of isolation? Will his latest bout with the virus have had any impact on him?

We can all look at midfield right now and see the glaring weakness. There is literally no depth. Once you go beyond Xhaka and Sambi, you’re having to make decisions which are less than ideal. You either use a young player who isn’t quite ready, or you shift some other pieces around to try and fill that gap. The return of Emile Smith Rowe might well be useful in that regard, giving you another option at 10 if you want to drop Martin Odegaard deeper.

It is relatively temporary though. Thomas Partey’s Ghana lost their opening game at AFCON, they play Gabon on Friday, then Comoros on Tuesday. It’s possible he could be back by the time we play Burnley. Obviously it’s far from ideal, but when it comes to the transfer market this month, I don’t think midfield is anywhere near as urgent as striker. Partey will be back, Elneny will be back, but as it stands we have a big problem up front.

As Sunday showed, Eddie Nketiah is not the answer. Alexandre Lacazette has done some good work in recent weeks, but simply doesn’t score enough goals. Aubameyang’s situation doesn’t look good. Flo Balogun is off to Middlesbrough on loan, perhaps as early as today. That leaves us with Gabriel Martinelli who, I think, can offer us something there, but it’s too much of a burden to place on a 20 year old.

Right now we sit in fourth place and the possibility of a top four finish is there. It will be tough, and it will depend on a huge collective effort between now and May. However, as much as we’ve shared goals around of late, I don’t think it’s possible to secure a top four finish without a striker who scores with some kind of frequency. As I mentioned the other day, Lacazette has has taken just 12 shots all season in the Premier League. It shows that he can’t combine some of the effective link-up play with the main job of a centre-forward, and unless we can address that, I think we’ll fall short of the finish necessary to bring back Champions League football.

I know it isn’t an either/or situation when it comes to bringing in a striker or a central midfielder, but for me the clear priority is the former. Goals are the currency which drives football success, and right now we don’t have enough threat in that area. With a schedule that won’t now be affected by FA Cup football, there’s a relatively clear road between now and the end of the season, and adding the firepower could well be the difference between top four and not.

If you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, the Arsecast Extra is below. Till tomorrow.

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This Arsecast Extra was recorded with ipDTL

The post What now for Nuno? : Why striker should be the January transfer priority appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

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

In this episode we discuss the disappointing 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup. We chat about the make-up of the team with AFCON, injury and Covid absences, being light in central midfield after letting Maitland-Niles leave, the goal we conceded, the step down in quality in some key positions, a poor overall performance, as well as analysing Nuno Tavares and Mikel Arteta’s decision to take him off in the first half. Then there are questions about team selection for Liverpool and Sp*rs – in particular central midfield, transfer market priorities in January and the need for more firepower, Liverpool’s false positives, and lots more besides.

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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.

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Match report – Player ratings – Manager reaction

Mikel Arteta and his players have received plenty of plaudits lately. Even after defeat to Man City, most could see the positives from that performance and were prepared to give them credit for the way they approached the game and the character they displayed.

So, on that basis, it’s only fair today to be as honest and forthright about what we saw last night at the City Ground. That was absolutely dismal. There was nothing positive to take from the game, the way we played, the inability of the manager to address the problems during the game or even at half-time, and to crash out of the FA Cup at this stage is a huge disappointment.

I know there’s a school of thought that we have bigger fish to fry, and with the team sitting in the top four right now, I can understand that to a small extent. However, we’re not so comfortable in that pursuit that we can afford to throw away the chance of silverware that easily, and some FA Cup ties between now and May isn’t exactly going to lead to massive fixture congestion.

There were players missing because of AFCON, Folarin Balogun and Granit Xhaka were absent because of Covid, while Takehiro Tomiyasu and Emile Smith Rowe were absent because of calf and groin injuries respectively. That meant a full debut for Charlie Patino, and while I don’t want to dwell too much on this, last night was evidence that he’s just not quite ready. This isn’t criticism of him, let me be clear. He’s only 18, and this experience will be beneficial, but there was a complete lack of midfield control. Again, it’s not his fault, but we were lacking in that area.

I know there will be a lot of discussion about Nuno Tavares and the manager’s decision to take him off during the first half, but I can’t help but wonder if the bigger issue is our decision to let Ainsley Maitland-Niles leave on loan before this game. As I said the other day, I found Arteta’s openness to his departure commendable, and although I don’t think he’d have made all the difference last night, it meant that we ran the risk of having to use a player before he’s quite there, which was the case with Patino. Sure, Roma wanted the deal done, but we’re not here to give Roma what they want and maybe a post-Forest loan would have been just as good for them, and certainly better for us.

The withdrawal of Tavares after 34 minutes is one of those which divides people. If a manager thinks a player isn’t doing what he wants, particularly when he’s on the same side and in earshot/communication with him throughout, he’s perfectly entitled to make a change. Yes, it’s embarrassing for any player to be taken off in the first half, but the left-back was having a stinker and I think he wanted Kieran Tierney to give us more down that side.

Unfortunately, he didn’t really do that, and the Tavares change looks harsh after 90 minutes because there were others on the pitch who stayed on and did worse. The step down from our ‘first team’ to back-ups was evident yesterday. There’s a world of difference between Tomiyasu and Cedric. I read this weekend that Atletico Madrid are interested in him, in which case we should send him there immediately and ask no questions as to why on earth they would want him. Similarly, where Gabriel has been so solid this season, Rob Holding was an absolute mess. I think he’s capable of better, but that was by some distance his worst ever game for us. Tavares didn’t get the full game to be as bad as both of them, so that early change appears to be more pointed than it actually was.

Whatever Arteta said at half-time didn’t work. Arsenal were slow, ponderous and lethargic. If the players deserve criticism for the way they played, the manager deserves it for the way he failed to elicit any kind of response. I felt he should have changed it half-time, Lacazette for Patino would have made sense with Odegaard dropping into midfield, but I guess even when that change happened, it made little difference.

We offered almost no threat, but a fine Saka cross created a great chance for Eddie Nketiah, but he got his header all wrong with just the keeper to beat. He looked like a player whose mind is elsewhere, and while we have many questions about what to do with our striker situation, he isn’t any kind of answer for me.

Forest’s goal was so horribly pathetic but nigh on inevitable. Sambi lost the ball in midfield, there was a shout for handball which would have probably been VARd in the Premier League, but the real issue is the inability to play a routine pass out to the left wing. They went down our left hand side, Holding made absolutely no attempt to stop the cross, while Cedric’s poor position when the ball was turned over was coupled by a half-arsed attempt to get back goal side of 33 year old Lewis Grabban who turned the ball home to win the tie. You knew that was that, because we could be still out there now playing against no men and we’d still not have scored.

The final indignity was the introduction of Sead Kolasinac for Cedric when we needed a goal. What on earth was that? Maybe it was a ‘Look at how little I have to work with’ message to the board, but you could make the very same point just as well by throwing on one of the young attacking players like Omari Hutchinson or Mika Biereth and at least given yourself an outside chance of scoring. Baffling, bordering on insulting.

Afterwards, Arteta said:

We weren’t good enough on the day and we are out of the competition which is really disappointing. We have to apologise for that.

It’s really hurting. It’s a competition that is related to our history and to go out of it today is a big bump.

The final thing I’ll say is this: I don’t think it’s possible to fully compartmentalise this performance and this defeat by saying the most important thing we have to play for is the top four. If you can play like this against Nottingham Forest – albeit with players missing etc etc, you can play like this against anyone, and if that happens in the Premier League the result will be inevitable.

As I said at the top, there has been plenty to be encouraged about lately, and while I don’t think we should lose sight of that, we shouldn’t ignore how bad last night was either. The FA Cup was a chance of a trophy this season, and it’s gone. I’ll be as pleased as anyone if we can make the top four but unless there’s a marked improvement in our next league game – away at that lot, for the record – we’re going to struggle to make that a reality. There is a separate discussion to be had about the strength of the squad and the need for additions, but that can wait.

Well done to Forest, who now get a home tie against Leicester. For Arsenal, a cold hard slap of reality and with two massive games coming up this week, it has to be put right quickly.

—

Right, let’s leave it there. James and I will be recording the Arsecast Extra later on, so 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.

Pod should be out by lunchtime. Until then, take it easy.

The post Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal: Dismal Gunners get exactly what they deserve appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Join us for live blog coverage of our FA Cup clash with Nottingham Forest, kick-off 17.10

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To do that, go to Arseblog Live – click login on the top right, and then choose ‘sign up’ to complete the process with your username/password, or you can use your Twitter, Facebook or Google account to register.

You can also get Twitter updates of key events – goals, cards, substitutions etc – by following @arseblog_live

CLICK TO LAUNCH Nottingham Forest v Arsenal – LIVE BLOG

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It feels like an age since we played, but we’re back at it today when we face Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round.

Ordinarily, you’d imagine this is a game that the manager might rotate substantially for with Liverpool and Sp*rs on the horizon, but while I think there might be some changes, I don’t think it will be quite as wholesale as some might imagine. Not least because we just don’t really have the first team numbers to do that, especially in central midfield.

You would imagine the likes of Bernd Leno, Nuno Tavares, Rob Holding, Albert Sambi Lokonga and maybe Eddie Nketiah and even Flo Balogun might see some action today, but they will have to be augmented with some ‘first team’ players too. Gabriel is suspended, of course, which could open the door for Pablo Mari, but if Mikel Arteta went with Ben White and Holding I wouldn’t be surprised. The Spaniard hasn’t played since an EFL Cup tie in September, and barely even makes the bench these days.

There are reports that young players like Charlie Patino, Salah Oulad M’Hand and Omari Hutchinson are in the squad, which would give the bench a youthful zest. Whether any of them start remains to be seen, I guess much will depend on some of the players Arteta expressed doubts about in his pre-game press conference. There were injuries, but also Covid issues to contend with, so there might be an absence or two we’re not aware of yet.

On his approach to today’s game, the manager says:

You have to go game-by-game, regardless of the competition. You want to plan what’s going to happen in two or three games and you decide for key players not to play because they’re going to play in other matches, it doesn’t work like that, because maybe the next day they get Covid or something happens and you don’t have them! We go game-by-game, try to win every single game and then the rest will be much better.

So, it sounds like he’s going to go pretty strong, but hopefully – and this is taking nothing for granted – we’re in a position where we can give the second half a bit of a Hale End flourish with some of those previously named young players off the bench. Kick off is at the weird time of 17.10.

—

As I’m sure you’ll have seen, we play in an all white kit today as part of the ‘No More Red’ campaign to highlight the work done by Arsenal in the Community to keep young people safe from knife crime and youth violence. It’s a great initiative, kudos.

More details here.

—

Elsewhere, Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ move to Roma was made official yesterday. Poor lad has to contend with Jose Mourinho from now until May, but on the other hand I’d say the Italian food over there is pretty good. Or, as they call it, food.

He’s got former teammate Henrikh Mkhitaryan to help him settle in, and a couple of English lads – Chris Smalling and Tammy Abraham too – so they’ll be able to point him in the right direction too. Best of luck to him on a personal level, but of course success for Roma means Mourinho is happy and I can’t get on board with that. Does that make me a small, petty man. Yes, yes it does, but I’m ok with that.

—

Finally, a dollop of transfer gossip to see us out. A report from Brazil says we’ve made an offer for Palmeiras midfielder, Danilo. As always you have to take stories like this with a pinch of salt, but we know we need a midfielder, he’s left-footed, 20 years old and ticks many of the boxes of our recent recruitment strategy. Let’s add some fuel to the fire by reminding people Edu spent some time in Brazil over the new year. Sure, he could have been there just to have a party and see family, but what if he wasn’t BBQing his bollix off and instead was there to do business?

Woah.

Anyway, let’s see what happens. I don’t know much about the player himself to be honest, but it sounds credible on paper, even if the publication itself might not be the most trustworthy.

—

Right, that’s it for now. Join us later for live blog coverage of the game, and all the usual stuff on Arseblog News after.

The post FA Cup 3rd round preview : Brazilian central midfielder linked appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Morning.

Some interesting stuff from Mikel Arteta’s press conference yesterday, which took place to preview our FA Cup third round tie with Nottingham Forest tomorrow. I’m gonna skip straight to the juicy stuff which, obviously, relates to transfers.

Let’s start with the decision to let Ainsley Maitland-Niles leave on loan for Roma, a move which has raised some eyebrows because of the timing. Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny are away with AFCON, leaving just two recognised central midfielders in Granit Xhaka and Albert Sambi Lokonga. Arteta explained that when his summer departure to Everton didn’t happen, they agreed to assess things again in December, and that essentially Maitland-Niles came to him when Roma’s interest became clear and asked to go because he thought it would be the best thing for his career.

In spite of the lack of numbers, the manager acquiesced, saying:

“To be fair to the player, that cannot be the only argument to try and keep someone, and a player that has been developed and raised through our Academy. A player who has been patient in many moments to try try to fulfil his dream.

“He was very straight with me and I understood the situation, so I think it’s a good option.”

I have to say I think he explained it well, I think there were shades of Wenger in how the player’s position was taken into account and, perhaps, even given priority. Maitland-Niles played when needed this season, but has only 256 Premier League minutes to his name. Not a single minute of playing time in December, so if he was true to his word about letting him go if he wasn’t getting enough action, then the decision is commendable on that level.

However, his very next sentence after providing that explanation was a reference to the transfer market:

“Obviously we are going to move, and we are going to look for options because we are very short there.”

So, while I think allowing an Academy player who has stagnated a bit the opportunity to go and play is something Arteta deserves some credit for, let’s not ignore the other angle here. He wants better players in his squad, and this lack of depth is a way of impressing that upon the Technical Director and the board, and highlighting the importance of addressing it. For a manager who is usually pretty taciturn when it comes to almost everything, one constant in Arteta’s tenure has been his openness about the transfer market and how important it is to improve the team. I remember quite early on one interview or press conference when he spoke about having to improve with the players he had, but making it clear that the best way to raise the level was via recruitment.

Now, he’s let a player go on loan which leaves us with a lack of depth in a key position, and it feels a bit like he’s trying to fast-track some stuff which was likely to happen in the summer anyway. It’s been clear for some time that Maitland-Niles’ didn’t really have a long-term future at Arsenal, while Elneny’s contract expires in the summer. That would have a created a gap which had to be filled, and here we are in January with that need pressing. The absence of Partey and Elneny might be relatively temporary, but there’s no margin for an injury or a suspension now, and to me at least, sanctioning the loan of Maitland-Niles to Roma is a way of putting some not so subtle pressure on the board to deliver now.

There has also been talk of a striker signing, and we all know why. The contractual situations of Lacazette and Nketiah play a part (as do their goalscoring tallies), and it looks like Aubameyang’s Arsenal goose is cooked unless there’s some serious bridge-building going on behind the scenes. There are strong links to Fiorentina’s Dusan Vlahovic, and when specifically asked about him, Arteta said:

“We have to maximise every window in many different ways. If it’s the right player and we can afford it and we can do what we want to do, we will discuss it and make the best possible decision, we are open.

“Edu and his team are working very hard because we know exactly what we need to do and whether we can accomplish that in January or the summer is a different question and is related to other stuff. But we’re there.”

The other stuff could be financial; it could be making room in the squad for new arrivals which might require some departures; but what’s abundantly clear is that Arteta is pushing for business to be done. The club backed in him a substantial way during the last window, at a time when the pressure on him was quite intense – not least because of the opening three games of the season. Now, with the team in the top four, and things looking up, will they go again and give him the funds and the players he obviously feels are necessary – not just for the rest of this season, but for the longer-term?

Let’s see, but it’s quite exciting to think that we might see a couple of new players this window. Also, as much as Arteta speaking publicly puts some pressure on others to deliver, I also don’t think he’s going rogue just to get what he wants. If he’s speaking this openly about incoming business, it’s because he knows there’s a consensus around him, with Edu, Josh Kroenke, and the rest of the football executive, that this is business we need to do anyway.

Let’s see what happens. For now, have a great Saturday, back tomorrow to preview the FA Cup.

The post Arteta pulls no punches about January transfer business appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Well, there’s the first working week of January more or less done and dusted. If you work Monday – Friday. Which I don’t, and which many people don’t, so I don’t know why I’ve started with this antiquated throwback to the olden days. Whatever you do, or don’t do – whenever you do or don’t do it – I hope you’re doing ok right now.

Mikel Arteta has a press conference today ahead of our FA Cup clash with Nottingham Forest on Sunday. There’s obviously plenty to ask him about, and I suspect as someone who recently had to miss games and training because of Covid, he’ll have a decent outlook on this week’s events. With news that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has tested positive – for the second time as far as we’re aware – it’s more than possible that Arsenal could fall victim to an outbreak which might require us to seek postponement, but I’m curious what he has to say about the way these situations are handled.

There is variance between competitions, and there’s a complete lack of transparency – at least when it comes to what fans are allowed to know – and that adds to the frustration felt when games are called off. Especially when it happens late in the day.

Other things he might talk about: the decision to let Ainsley Maitland-Niles go to Roma on loan. Let’s be honest, his departure in itself isn’t really a great surprise, but the timing of it certainly is. With two central midfielders away at AFCON, we lack depth in that position with some important games coming up. Does he feel like he has the fabled ‘internal solutions’, or is there likely to be some transfer market activity to add something to the squad this month?

That deal hasn’t gone through yet, but Roma were playing last night and lost 3-1 to AC Milan (Olivier Giroud scored), so today would be the perfect day to announce a signing to distract grumpy fans who, let’s face it, have probably had enough of Jose Mourinho at this point. I have no evidence that this is the case, I haven’t trawled any Roma forums or fan accounts, but realistically, how much Mourinho can anyone take without it being enough? Personally speaking, it would as much as you could fit on the head of a pin, but then divide that by infinity, shrink it down like Rick Moranis shrank his kids, and then slice that in two repeatedly until you need the world’s largest electron microscope to see it. Even then that’s too much for me.

There will obviously be some chat about the FA Cup game and the potential for rotating the squad, but it’s an interesting thing right now – as we discussed on the new Arsecast today, the squad isn’t that deep as it stands, and there’s something of a gap between the first team and the next generation coming up from the Academy. The best player at that level by some distance is Folarin Balogun, and he can’t get in the squad – so is it a bit early to think that the likes of Charlie Patino, Omari Hutchinson and a couple of others are ready to step and start games now? I think it is. I’d very happily be proved wrong by this, but the suggestions we ‘play the kids’ in the Carabao Cup first leg to keep players fresh for the North London derby three days later don’t really stack up when you look at what we’ve got available.

As for transfers, I have no evidence to support this whatsoever, I’ve heard no whispers or rumours about incomings in January, but my gut tells me we’re going to do something. Who, what and when? Your guess is as good as mine, but you can see this is a squad which has room for improvement in a couple of key areas, and the fact we’re pushing hard for a top four place makes that much more of a priority. We have Lacazette, Nketiah, Chambers, Elneny and Kolasinac out of contract in the summer, and none of them look likely to stay as it stands, while the Aubameyang situation doesn’t appear to be one which is headed for a particularly happy ending. There is room.

Another consideration is that next season there’s a great big gap when the World Cup takes place, so if you can find the right player in January, some of the adaptation can take place before the interruptions and disruptions of that kick in. It might cost you a bit more now, but perhaps that will feel like a small price to pay if you get the right player and their goals can consolidate a top four finish. I can’t imagine this hasn’t occurred to the manager and the people running the club, so let’s see what happens. The only thing I’d say is that whatever we do this month, make it’s part of the same strategy as the summer. It doesn’t mean you can’t add some experience, but if you bring in a more senior player, a loan deal until the end of the season makes sense; handing them a four year contract does not. Anyway, let’s see.

Right, I’ll leave it there for now. There’s more in-depth discussion of these topics, and more, on today’s Arsecast which you can find below. Enjoy, and we’ll have all the press conference stories on Arseblog News this afternoon.

Download – iTunes – Spotify – Acast – RSS

The post Friday bits: January transfers, squad depth, cup rotation appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

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

In this episode I’m joined by Andrew Allen to discuss postponements and fixture congestion, the January transfer window including the imminent departure of Ainsley Maitland-Niles and whether there’s someone coming in to replace him, a dream January arrival and the rationale for pushing the boat out now when it comes to finding a new striker, plus ref chat, improving officiating, looking ahead to the FA Cup, Maitland-Niles Euro-pop and much more.

Follow Andrew @aallensport

If you want to become an Arseblog Member on Patreon, you can sign up at patreon.com/arseblog for just €5 per month.

If you are a regular listener via iTunes, if you would be so kind as to leave a review/rating that would be greatly appreciated.

Download – iTunes – Spotify – Acast – RSS

The post Episode 660 – January turbo boost? appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

We begin this morning with the postponement of the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg which the EFL ‘reluctantly’ agreed to yesterday after Liverpool reported an ‘ever-increasing number of Covid cases’.

They closed their training ground, and EFL said:

Having now fully reviewed the circumstances involved, the League has accepted Liverpool’s request after determining, albeit reluctantly, that a postponement was the only option as the Club looks to mitigate against the further risk of infection amongst its squad and staff alongside ensuring public health was protected by not travelling from Liverpool to London.

At this point I think everyone understands the impact the pandemic and the new variant is having on society and increasingly on sport. For me, at least, the frustration is the lack of transparency regarding the numbers when it comes to games being postponed. Even though Arsenal have made public the names of players who have been absent through Covid, some might feel it’s an invasion of a private health matter, which is fine, but surely it should be possible to make public the actual number of players/staff etc who have confirmed cases of Covid via a PCR test. As long as that remains opaque, fans will have questions – and let’s not forget Arsenal were made to play the opening game of the season without key players because of Covid.

When games are being called off and fans inconvenienced (in more ways than one), talk of ‘suspected’ cases isn’t really good enough. I know these are difficult times we’re living in, and there’s been an element of rolling with the punches when it comes to the pandemic, but we’re nearly at the two year mark with Covid. This isn’t a new thing anymore. Football and other sports should have thought more deeply about how to deal with new waves of infection and the impact it would have. Maintaining the integrity of the sport should have been high on that list; there should have been clear guidelines from the start as to thresholds for postponement and all the rest; and right now the lack of those things, or the vagueness around them, is feeding into the frustration fans already feel.

The Carabao Cup games have been rescheduled. The first leg taking place at Anfield next Thursday January 13th, with the second leg the following Thursday, January 20th. Between them we have a North London derby away from home, and then the Burnley game which was supposed to take place on Saturday January 22nd being moved to Sunday January 23rd. I asked why the second semi-final couldn’t have taken place on the Wednesday of that week so as not to further inconvenience all the fans who had made travel plans, trains, flights, hotels etc for the Burnley game, and was told ‘to avoid clashing with PL games’.

As yet, there are no Premier League games scheduled for that midweek, so it remains to be seen what we would have clashed with. I was subsequently very reliably informed that even without the Carabao Cup games shifting, there was a strong likelihood Burnley would have been moved anyway, discussions had started about that, so your guess as to when that would have been communicated is as good as mine. I had a lot of messages from fans whose plans for that match have been scuppered because of this. Some can salvage it at great expense, for others it’s not doable and the distances some have to travel make it impossible.

We all get the disruption a pandemic can cause, but last minute decisions which are not based on disruption demonstrate how much fans are an afterthought to those doing the scheduling. It’s worth remembering that we have two other postponed Premier League games that have to jammed into the calendar: the home game against Wolves which was due to take place on December 28th, and a trip to Chelsea which was called off because of their involvement in the Fifa Club World Cup earlier in the season.

—

Then we have the ludicrous FA charge leveled at Arsenal which was announced yesterday. It relates to our behaviour in the 59th minute after Gabriel was sent off. I watched this again a number of times yesterday, and from the broadcast footage, I am utterly stumped as to why we’ve been censured for this. Gabriel reacts, aghast at the red card, and is understandably upset by it. He tries to talk to the referee, Alexandre Lacazette pushes him away, and in less than 45 seconds he has walked off the pitch.

There are some Arsenal players talking to the referee. Martin Odegaard is there, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Granit Xhaka, Kieran Tierney, and Thomas Partey too. You can clearly see Lacazette gently moving Odegaard away as he looks to speak to the ref in his role as captain. Gabriel sarcastically applauds the fourth official as he goes off, but this is not a charge specific to him – it’s ‘players’. Broadcast footage cuts to the ref talking and explaining to Xhaka, Lacazette and Saka, what has happened (in his own mind at least).

This is now just 60 seconds after the red card was issued, and it’s pretty calm, all things considered. Arsenal have had a contentious penalty awarded against them and had a man sent off, but there’s no aggression towards the referee. They are simply talking to him, and as much as possible in those circumstances, protocol has been followed. The captain is doing most of it, the captain very clearly pushed away the man sent off, and the reaction is nothing more than you see week in, week out in the Premier League when teams are wound-up – perfectly understandably – by a referee’s decision. Not to mention that the referee himself didn’t book anyone else during this period, so nothing said or done in that time can have been particularly egregious.

So, why have Arsenal been charged with failing ‘to ensure its players conducted themselves in an orderly fashion’?

I guarantee you, you could go through countless incidents this season and find clubs and players who have behaved worse and not been charged. Is it because Lacazette spoke about the decisions after the game? Is it because there was such furore online over the standard of officiating that the PGMOL have closed ranks to show that if you criticise one of our boys, this is what you’ll get? I’m not one for refereeing conspiracies, but as I’ve said this week  – and many times in the past – there is a necessary discussion about their accountability, the standard of the work they do, and this 100% makes that even more the case.

It can’t possibly be any more than a fine, but I hope as and when we do pay it there’s some kind of statement about it. I’ll say this though, if you’re Mikel Arteta and you’re looking to grow the seeds of the ‘us against them’ nature of how this last week has gone, this nonsense, along with postponements and fixture congestion which seems to have hit us harder than most, would really give you plenty to work with.

Right, let’s leave it there for now. Despite there being nothing to preview in the end, we did a preview podcast over on Patreon, and I’ll be back here tomorrow with more on the blog and a brand new Arsecast. Until then, take it easy.

The post Liverpool postponed, fixture congestion, and a nonsensical FA charge appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.

Let’s start the day with Liverpool seeking to postpone the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg on Thursday. In a statement on their official website, they say:

“Liverpool Football Club can confirm an application has been submitted for the postponement of Thursday’s Carabao Cup semi-final, first-leg tie with Arsenal due to an escalating number of suspected positive COVID-19 cases and player availability.

“The Reds have formally requested to the EFL that the fixture is rescheduled after further suspected positive tests were registered among players and staff, allied to other factors impacting selection, including illness and injury.”

This is interesting, to say the least. Obviously, if there are concerns about Covid then people’s health and well-being should be first priority – but in a scenario like this I think there needs to be full transparency. As I wrote last week, people will take a cynical view of requests for postponements without the full information. Ahead of recent fixtures, Arsenal have made public the names of players who tested positive for Covid, and last weekend we played Man City without our manager, assistant manager and a number of backroom staff. Is there any good reason why Liverpool couldn’t do the same?

There’s also some precedent. Back in October 2020, Sp*rs were given a bye into the fourth round after a number of Leyton Orient players tested positive for Covid. To be fair, it was different back than in terms of how seriously the virus was viewed and we were barely 6 months into the pandemic. Since then there’s greater information and knowledge, but it must surely be a consideration.

Not to mention that in 2019, when Liverpool had to play in the FIFA Club World Cup, they also had a tie with Aston Villa in the Carabao Cup to contend with. Jurgen Klopp named all his senior players for the FIFA tournament and said “I think it’s a really nice opportunity for the younger players”, when talking about the other game. Ok, they got beaten 5-0, but still, they were able to field a team which they deemed acceptable in extraordinary circumstances – sort of like now.

I think the fact it’s Liverpool and the fact it’s a semi-final will ensure that the first leg is not forfeit, but the knock-on effects of that if the game on Thursday is postponed will be serious. The schedule is already hectic, and let’s be honest – the idea of playing a two-legged semi in this tournament, this season, with everything that’s going on, was always ludicrous. I think both clubs would have been ok with one game, flip a coin for who plays at home, and get on with it. Instead, I don’t think the idea was even given a moment’s thought because sponsors and broadcasters would have lost out.

Mikel Arteta was due to hold a press conference yesterday at 1.30pm, but at the last minute that was changed to 2pm today. I assume it’s because we had wind that Liverpool were seeking the postponement, and I can only imagine we’re expecting a decision before the press conference later on. There’s no point having one if there’s no game to talk about, so we should know soon enough today.

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Meanwhile, after doubting the Ainsley Maitland-Niles to Roma stuff yesterday, it appears that he is going to join Roma on loan. James Olley from ESPN reports: “Maitland-Niles will join Roma on loan until the end of the season. It is a straightforward loan, no option/obligation to buy. Formal announcement expected in due course.”

Things have moved at pace today – told this is now agreed. Maitland-Niles will join Roma on loan until the end of the season. It is a straightforward loan, no option/obligation to buy. Formal announcement expected in due course. https://t.co/L5AEvSHeFA

— James Olley (@JamesOlley) January 4, 2022

So, what does that mean for our midfield? Are we banking on the players we have to get us through this period, or is there a plan for someone else to come in and fill the gap? A loan move, perhaps? A contract for Jack Wilshere? I find it hard to understand why we would sanction a deal – especially just a loan where there is no obligation for Roma to make the deal permanent for a decent fee – when it leaves us short like this. An injury or a suspension to either Albert Sambi Lokonga or Granit Xhaka and we’re having to rearrange the deckchairs in a big way.

I guess if Arteta’s press conference goes ahead later on then we might get a bit more clarity on the situation. It does seem like an unnecessary risk unless there’s a solid idea about how we’d replace him or how we’d cope in the absence of another central midfielder, but right now we’re a little in the dark so it’s not unreasonable to feel a bit concerned until we get a better understanding of the decision making process.

I can’t help but think this window is going to be extraordinarily complicated because of Covid, and clubs already finding themselves without players on a regular basis. Allowing someone to leave for another club makes a squad shallower, and I think that’s going to play a part in how, and certainly in when, deals are done. I don’t really get why we’d do this so early in the window, but maybe it will make more sense when we hear from the manager.

There are other potential loan departures this month too. Folarin Balogun needs a club and needs to play; someone like Calum Chambers barely plays; and with Bernd Leno likely to leave in the summer, there’s surely a case to be made for one or even two of the young goalkeepers like Arthur Okonkwo and Karl Hein to go out and get some first team experience. Let’s see what happens.

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Ok, that’s it for this morning. We’ve got a Patreon podcast available now chatting about VAR with someone who worked as a VAR technician in MLS – and assuming the game goes ahead tomorrow, we’ll have a preview podcast. We might even do one even if the game is called off.

More here tomorrow, and of course any breaking news can be found on @arseblognews / Arseblog News.

Take it easy for now.

The post Liverpool seek Carabao Cup postponement / AMN off to Roma appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.