Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2020/2021

Ol' Donie

5star02707 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/HaleEndArsenal/status/1355817270484860929?s=19

Our attack will improve soon but we can clearly see Arteta was focus on improving our defence

That's fantastic. I was cross yesterday, but you can't argue with that.

greendom

wonski wrote: »

Leno was number one and was good.

Martinez only chance to play was to move to another team.

You don't simply put your number one away after an injury because another keeper stepped in and did well.

It wasn't that straightforward for me. Martinez literally didn't put a foot wrong when he came in for Leno and was playing better than the number 1 when he came in. Great at crosses, shot stopping .

His distribution and control with the ball at his feet was a lot better than Leno's had been.

Martinez had performed so well that for me he deserved the No1 role. Arteta didn't agree and in fairness Leno has improved his game since he came back in.

It wasn't a black and white decision though.

wonski

greendom wrote: »

It wasn't that straightforward for me. Martinez literally didn't put a foot wrong when he came in for Leno and was playing better than the number 1 when he came in. Great at crosses, shot stopping .

His distribution and control with the ball at his feet was a lot better than Leno's had been.

Martinez had performed so well that for me he deserved the No1 role. Arteta didn't agree and in fairness Leno has improved his game since he came back in.

It wasn't a black and white decision though.

IMO Leno did nothing wrong to be sidelined.

Sure Martinez did well for himself, but that was just good enough to become number one elsewhere.

And I wish him well but wouldn't be fair for Leno. He isn't Kepa

L'prof

greendom wrote: »

It wasn't that straightforward for me. Martinez literally didn't put a foot wrong when he came in for Leno and was playing better than the number 1 when he came in. Great at crosses, shot stopping .

His distribution and control with the ball at his feet was a lot better than Leno's had been.

Martinez had performed so well that for me he deserved the No1 role. Arteta didn't agree and in fairness Leno has improved his game since he came back in.

It wasn't a black and white decision though.

I was definitely torn over it and scrutinised every Leno mistake in the few months since. I’m very happy with how Leno’s performing now though. It’s definitely a team effort though. As has been said they have the 2nd best defensive record in the league this season, 3rd best clean sheets and are as low as 15th for keeper saves. They actually had the most saves in the league last season. Wow

DenMan

Transfer deadline day tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see will we be active. Maitland-Niles could go out on loan with Southampton interested and the mirror are reporting we're in for Palace's van Aaanholt. Mustafi could go to Liverpool, although I doubt it.

tayto lover

DenMan wrote: »

Transfer deadline day tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see will we be active. Maitland-Niles could go out on loan with Southampton interested and the mirror are reporting we're in for Palace's van Aaanholt. Mustafi could go to Liverpool, although I doubt it.

I don’t think we’ll get anyone else in. I’d say the focus will be on shipping out a few if possible.
On yesterday’s game I just saw that we had only 43% possession in a home game. I wonder how long it is since we had less?
We defended well yesterday even if Cavani missed a few easy enough chances from a few yards out. Cedric is a good lad to have as he can fill in for both fullbacks. Luiz had his best game in awhile. You never know which Luiz will turn up. We gave possession away far too often and Partey was one of the main culprits but he had a good enough game otherwise.
We could have won it but with missing 3 very important players I’d have taken a draw as soon as I found out they weren’t playing.

Underground

People were seemingly very quick to forget that before his injury, Leno was comfortably our best player last season, alongside Auba.

I suppose that's a testament to how good Emi was when he came in but I wasn't ready to turf out Leno on the back of Emi having a good 15 game run.

L'prof

Underground wrote: »

People were seemingly very quick to forget that before his injury, Leno was comfortably our best player last season, alongside Auba.

I suppose that's a testament to how good Emi was when he came in but I wasn't ready to turf out Leno on the back of Emi having a good 15 game run.

For me he’s never played as well as he is right now

2ndcoming

If you're trying to dislodge Manuel Neuer you'd want to be playing well in fairness!

DenMan

It seems like Leicester don't want to win this league either.

tayto lover

DenMan wrote: »

It seems like Leicester don't want to win this league either.

Leicester without Vardy are like Spurs without Kane.

wonski

wonski wrote: »

Leno was number one and was good.

Martinez only chance to play was to move to another team.

You don't simply put your number one away after an injury because another keeper stepped in and did well.

We'll never know the ins and outs tbh. I would have thought 40k a week for Martinez could have kept him with us, "big" contract and he'd have been well set for life. However if it was actual ambition that caused him to move then fair play to him. I just hope it wasn't Arsenal being stupidly tight.

Also I've criticised Leno plenty and still feel like he'll be a couple of mistakes away from becoming a big liability but there's no denying he's been playing well lately.

DenMan wrote: »

It seems like Leicester don't want to win this league either.

Just came on to say that this season looks like the year they won it, an open goal missed by a ton of teams.

5star02707

5star02707 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/HaleEndArsenal/status/1355817270484860929?s=19

Our attack will improve soon but we can clearly see Arteta was focus on improving our defence

I think he probably learnt a lesson. By focussing on defence too much, he actually made us invite too much pressure because we posed no offensive threat to our opposition.

I don't think it's coincidence that as our attack has improved, so has our defensive record.

wonski

tayto lover wrote: »

Leicester without Vardy are like Spurs without Kane.

They actually played better football than with Vardy, result aside it was nicer to watch.

Vardy sitting on the other half of the pitch waiting for that final pass is the worst football ever to watch for neutrals.

2ndcoming

He's an out and out hatcher but it works for them. Not a hope were they beating us that day without him. Still sick over that poxy VAR mistake, could have been a very different day at a crucial time in our season.

tayto lover

wonski wrote: »

They actually played better football than with Vardy, result aside it was nicer to watch.

Vardy sitting on the other half of the pitch waiting for that final pass is the worst football ever to watch for neutrals.

They play to their strengths. Vardy works for them. Nice football doesn’t always.

tayto lover

Just watching Brighton v Spurs and have to say that Gareth Bale for all his experience is doing absolutely nothing in the line of leadership for Spurs so far.
Son also very quiet in that first half. They seriously miss Harry.
They would need awful lot of improvement in the second half to win this.
Having said that I think Brighton have had lots of leads but tend to lose games.

wonski

Feel sorry for Brighton all season. They often seem a better team and even more often are punished in the end.

Will suit Spurs perfectly, one or two long balls to Son and that could be it.

Let's hope it won't happen.

Deeper Blue

Another point gained on the mighty Spurs I see.

Considering they're the greatest team since the 60s I have to commend the herculean efforts from our team of relegation fodder.

It must be up there as one of the greatest achievements in top flight history. Truly inspirational.

Jmac24128

Can smell a Mourinho meltdown coming hahahahahahahaha

DenMan

Liverpool have signed Ben Davies from Preston. Doubt they'll be going for Mustafi now, if they were ever in for him in the first place.

beer enigma

DenMan wrote: »

Liverpool have signed Ben Davies from Preston. Doubt they'll be going for Mustafi now, if they were ever in for him in the first place.

Klopp tried to sign him at Dortmund years ago and the two are close. 20m touted, still wouldn't be surprised

stuchyg

beer enigma wrote: »

Klopp tried to sign him at Dortmund years ago and the two are close. 20m touted, still wouldn't be surprised

20m for mustafi, not a chance of it, only 6 months left on his deal too.

Quazzie

stuchyg wrote: »

20m for mustafi, not a chance of it, only 6 months left on his deal too.

But their desperate so I hope there is some truth to it. Would really love us to do them over a barrel for every penny of it considering their dealings with us in the past.

Quazzie

I'd love if Santi came back to get involved with the coaching at Arsenal under Arteta.

djan

Quazzie wrote: »

But their desperate so I hope there is some truth to it. Would really love us to do them over a barrel for every penny of it considering their dealings with us in the past.

I wouldn't be too harsh on them considering they coughed up £35 million for Chamberlain :P

Mad results happening throughout the league, puts the 0-0 draw into perspective. Upcoming game is a must win on order to start moving up as a lot of the teams above and just below us are playing each other this round.

Underground

Van aanholt being mentioned on twitter as possible deadline day arrival. The usual pinch of salt but wouldn't be bad backup if it were true.

beer enigma

Looks like Mustafi is off to Shalke for £2m

DvB

beer enigma wrote: »

Looks like Mustafi is off to Shalke for £2m

Off the wage bill and a few quid into the bargain... happy enough with that if it happens.

Quazzie

beer enigma wrote: »

Looks like Mustafi is off to Shalke for £2m

Him and Kolasanic reunited.

Talisman

Quazzie wrote: »

But their desperate so I hope there is some truth to it. Would really love us to do them over a barrel for every penny of it considering their dealings with us in the past.

Arsenal got £35M for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, a serious amount of money for an injury prone player who was in the final year of his contract.

L'prof

Talisman wrote: »

Arsenal got £35M for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, a serious amount of money for an injury prone player who was in the final year of his contract.

There's still a lot of bitterness on both sides over the Suarez fiasco

Quazzie

Talisman wrote: »

Arsenal got £35M for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, a serious amount of money for an injury prone player who was in the final year of his contract.

We should've asked for £35,000,001.

My post was in reference to their player contract stipulations that stated that Arsenal had to table larger offers than other teams to activate any buy-out clauses/.

Talisman

L'prof wrote: »

There's still a lot of bitterness on both sides over the Suarez fiasco

That's pretty sad. Liverpool was a stepping stone in his career, Arsenal wouldn't have been any different. Real Madrid/Barcelona were always his intended destination.

L'prof

Talisman wrote: »

That's pretty sad. Liverpool was a stepping stone in his career, Arsenal wouldn't have been any different. Real Madrid/Barcelona were always his intended destination.

Like I said both sides. You just have to look at the clause entered into Firminho’s contract

5star02707

We might see a movement on Mustafi

https://twitter.com/Freddie_Paxton/status/1356220784864358402?s=19

Quazzie

Auba missing the Wolves game due to paperwork. I'm assuming that's Covid paperwork because he was out of the country

jonneymendoza

L'prof wrote: »

Like I said both sides. You just have to look at the clause entered into Firminho’s contract

What is in his clause?

Deeper Blue

Considering the fee paid Mustafi must be close to our worst ever signing

jonneymendoza

Quazzie wrote: »

Auba missing the Wolves game due to paperwork. I'm assuming that's Covid paperwork because he was out of the country

he is back here already but needs to self isolate

djan

Schalke is getting an excellent deal there! I was surprised that he's only 28. Could have probably gotten a bit more it if wasn't for Corona, but decent chunk off the wage bill nonetheless.

A LB is a key priority now as Cedric's too one footed and Saka is hugely wasted there. Aanholt would be a proven addition and count as a homegrown player while not costing too much, given only 6 months left on his contract.

djan

jonneymendoza wrote: »

he is back here already but needs to self isolate

I thought this wasn't the case for elite players once they provide negative tests. I don't remember Odegaard having to do that.

wonski

Given it was personal leave there could be something else, they might not want to reveal it to the press or fans.

And rightly so. If he can't play then there must be a reason he can't.

No need to speculate imo.

https://twitter.com/David_Ornstein/status/1356236745646477317

AMN to West Brom looking likely. I think Southampton was lined up, but he doesn't want to play RB, and wants a chance to play midfield. Interesting.

Jmac24128

Basil3 wrote: »

https://twitter.com/David_Ornstein/status/1356236745646477317

AMN to West Brom looking likely. I think Southampton was lined up, but he doesn't want to play RB, and wants a chance to play midfield. Interesting.

Once he plays and keeps his value so we can sell in the summer.

Quazzie

jonneymendoza wrote: »

he is back here already but needs to self isolate

djan wrote: »

I thought this wasn't the case for elite players once they provide negative tests. I don't remember Odegaard having to do that.

Wasn't trying to speculate, but was just curious when Arteta specifically mentioned paperwork holding up his return.

L'prof

jonneymendoza wrote: »

What is in his clause?

He has a release clause that can be triggered by any club except Arsenal apparently

Talisman

L'prof wrote: »

Like I said both sides. You just have to look at the clause entered into Firminho’s contract

That was 5 years ago (2016). The Liverpool hierarchy obviously wanted to protect teir own interests and not strengthen a rival for the lucrative top 4 at the time. It was a valid business decision, both clubs have been on very different trajectories since.

If Arsenal had taken the same approach with Van Persie in 2012, Man United wouldn't have been gifted the 2012/13 league title and Arsenal's qualification for the lucrative Champions League would have been alot easier. Arsenal sold the top league scorer for a pittance (£24M) and almost paid the price. Tottenham lost to Liverpool and Fulham in the closing stages of the league and those results gifted Arsenal fourth place in the league by a single point.

L'prof

Van Persie forced his way out. I think it was either United or City. United were the lesser of 2 evils

Talisman

L'prof wrote: »

Van Persie forced his way out. I think it was either United or City. United were the lesser of 2 evils

The lesser of two evils?

Van Persie was in the form of his life having scored 30 league goals and they sold him for £24M. To put it in context that was the same transfer window where Chelsea bought Hazard for over £30M, Tottenham sold Modric for £30M and Aston Villa signed the little known Christian Benteke for £12-15M. Four years previously, Man Utd paid Tottenham £31M for Berbatov.

Arsenal rolled over and gifted Ferguson his final league title, the Premier League prize money alone would have paid the transfer fee.