Arteta closing in fast ? He’s only won an FA cup as a manager about 4 years ago.
He’s done absolutely nothing in the game to this point.
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Everton’s penalty reduced from 10 points to 6
I haven’t mentioned Alonso as closing in on an Elite manager ?
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You realised you've just compared Emery and Ange, right?
Emery who has won the league in France, has won the Europa League 4 times, and is currently performing absolute miracles with Aston Villa? I like big Ange, but the biggest thing he's won is the league in Scotland, which is something even Steven Gerrard managed. We're currently down to our 5th and 6th choice central defenders, and we're still 4th, with a team still mostly put together by Dean Smith.
A lot of this is up in the air:
1. We don’t know the size of Everton’s breach for 2022-23, which matters because six points is for roughly £20m.
2. Ditto for Forest; there’s talk that it’s bigger than Everton’s but no numbers to back it up.
3. We don’t know if the EPL “no double jeopardy” principle will be applied, which would prevent a second penalty falling in this season.
There’s a good chance that the relegation issue will only be settled after this season has ended.
Sorry for the lack of apostrophes, I type them but the app does not recognise them.
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Arteta has done a pretty incredible job taking these frankly terrible Arsenal squad and making them genuine contenders. They have not fallen away after a single season, as many on here and more broadly predicted they would.
Arsenal have established a squad good enough to compete for several years to come, we will see soon if it's good enough to win and dominate. I think reinforcements will arrive upgrading likes of Nketiah and Nelson in the summer.
Arteta deserves enormous credit - took a team in doldrums, with owners who weren't interested, execs who were a shambles, and a squad of self-indulgent and low-quality players. His first managerial job, massive club, went through COVID, won a trophy, improved league position every year... Honestly if you put Pep or Klopp or Ancellotti into Arsenal at the same time with same backing, can you honestly say you're 100% convinced they would have produced better results in this timeframe?? Yes he's had plenty money, but so have they all.
Btw Pep (13 years), Klopp (15 years), and Ancellotti (23 years) are all a fair bit older than Mikel...
When Ancellotti was 41 he was manager of Juventus and choked a 5 point lead to finish 2nd, then finished 2nd again the following season. He won only an Intertoto Cup in his managerial career at that point.
When Klopp was 41 he was finishing 5th in the Bundesliga with Dortmund (improving on previous season 6th), having won precisely zero trophies.
Pep is the greatest manager ever and can't really be compared with anyone in my book - he'd won it all multiple times by age of 41! If Arteta achieves half that he will be one of the greatest ever himself.
So... Are people just jealous of Arteta because he is so good, so young?
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Hands up who had West Ham v Brentford down as a thriller before kick off!!!
They are both extremely important players who get wheeled out for all our biggest games and have performed brilliantly in them. Arsenal unbeaten v City, Liverpool, United, Spurs, and Chelsea so far this season - Jorginho and Havertz have featured heavily across those games. Jorginho is like a coach on the pitch and offers something different to other midfielders. Kai is growing in confidence and doesn't lose duels, on the ground or in the air - his pressing (along with Odegaard) is vital to our recent potency in attack.Havertz is not a striker, he's not a midfielder. He's a weird player. But he does so much really really well. He's scored and created a good number of goals now. Yes he's frustrating but honestly describing him as terrible I can't possibly agree. He's brilliant at lots of things, he lets himself down on the basics sometimes. He probably cost too much. I am delighted to have him though and originally was pretty annoyed we signed him - he's a key cog in the squad and proof is in the pudding - he's performed excellently as we've been annihilating all PL opposition in recent weeks.
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Havertz has become a very important player but will never show highly in goal contribution stats despite being involved in most of them! He 'assists the assist' if that makes sense. Yes he appears languid but his positional awareness is excellent. Let's face it, Leo Messi would look rubbish in the Chelsea team - over the past 5 years or so they've taken good players and made them look rubbish.
I'm not sure who Havertz can be compared to in other teams. I did hear a pundit say Darwin Nunez which is a terrible comparison - Nunez is a far more destructive and explosive player. Actually Nunez is one of those players that gets maligned but would be absolutely amazing for Arsenal (IMHO he is for Liverpool too he just gets picked on for his misses however he creates mayhem for opposition defenders). Zero chance Liverpool would sell him to Arsenal but someone like Nunez up front for Arsenal would be unplayable for most defences when given service from Odegaard, Martinelli and Saka.
Just saying....
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Last edited by xxnick1975; 27th February 2024 at 01:58.
Bucking the injury woe trend that pretty much every other PL team has it looks like Arsenal could have 5 1st teamers back from injury for the next match vs Sheff Utd. Partey, Jesus, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko and Vieira expected to return to fitness by then.
That would leave just Jurrien Timber as the remaining injured 1st team player.
Easy now, Jorge does a decent job when he comes on, but he's a squad player at best.
I have been quite vocal on my views on Kai and that hasn't changed much. I would much rather see ESR get game time over Kai, and for almost £70 mil we could have got a much better player. If he cost £30-£40 mil then yes, he is a decent squad player but at £70 he's not performing to the level that price point demands. No way should he be getting as much game time as he does.
Players like Partey, Tomiyasu and in the last Kieran Tierney (who I absolutely adores as a Scot) all have a major issue - availability. They are not there when we need them.
Jesus and Zinchenko have also fallen into that bracket.
If you can't see what Kai is bringing to the table then that's on you. We are where we are for a reason - he's a huge part of it. ESR is brilliant and exciting to watch, but looks back at the Newcastle goal and he's at fault for letting Willock go. That never happens with Kai, he gives much better security and is also scoring and creating.
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Luton pillaged in 40 minutes by the viking
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Quiz question - what happened for the last time in a Premier league game 25 years ago to the day? …and is highly unlikely to happen again?
Guardian has a story that some Man Utd players asked for the day off after their recent defeat by Fulham.
We’ve been awful tonight. I don’t say this lightly but it’s like watching Steve Bruce’s Newcastle.
Barkley different gravy. City will buy him in the summer once he gets back from the Euros....
Smart move by Chelsea letting him go on a free and spending £300mn upgrading on Caicedo, Enzo and Lavia.
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beg to differ; Emry has a lot of success under his belt and not always with the top drawer clubs.
Arsenal didn't work out but he's been successful pretty much everywhere else and not always with a stupid budget. A mate is a villa fan and they love him; the change he made to a squad destined for relegation under Gerrard to Champions league contenders with a relatively small spend and pretty big injury list has to count for something too.
Only so many trophies to be won and sometimes the credit is due without silverware
I love a 99
That was unreal. Fair play, never give up.
Not sure what the kerfuffle at the end was about?
Less than 24 hours to go, bet there’s butterflies in City’s stomachs.
Will Ake cope with Anthony’s creativity? - 10 yards forward, kill the ball, cut in and to the side, lose ball, rinse and repeat.
Might be watching this old-style Dr. Who from behind the sofa.
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