Six Remaining Squad Questions for Arsenal before the TW shuts

TotalArsenal

Six Pre-season Observations/Questions:

  1. Arsenal are much stronger in defence, with excellent back up and a great mix of skills. Saliba and Zinchenko are two great additions and we only had to pay for one of them. The question is what are we going to do with Holdingho? I love the guy but surely he needs regular league footie?!
  2. Our midfield is looking good but, if I am honest, we are a bit light on the right. Partey is injury prone and I feel we could improve on him anyway. Tielemans’ rumours do not seem to go away. Elneny, like Holding in defence, is great deep back up, but not a like for like replacement of Partey. Zinchenko will replace Granit regularly as he can play on all left sided positions, but the right side of midfield remains an area for potential improvement.
  3. Will Martinelli break through this season or do we need to bring in extra, experienced fire power on the left wing? You know my little theory of Cody Gakpo joining us soon. Martinelli has had some good assists in preseason and surely goals will follow soon. The partnership with GJ9 should help him to blossom. Still I think we will strengthen here before the TW shuts.
  4. Who covers for Saka? I am hoping it’s Reiss Nelson but he is featuring very little at the moment which makes me think/fear he is on his way. Will Marquinos get a chance as right Winger? Of course, there is Pepe but it just doesn’t seem to be working… So will we buy a more ready to rock option? Our five expected attackers are: Bukayo, Gabriel J, Gabriel M, Eddie, Nelson/Marquinos. Surely we need to add one or two more attackers to have real strength in depth?!
  5. The big mistery is how much and where Vieira will get to play. This could answer some of the questions above.
  6. The other big question is what will happen with our Nr1 ‘time between goals or assists maker’ of last season. ESR surely has to play regularly, but in which position?

For me these are just strength in depth issues, and we are ready to rock now. But they do need answering in the next few weeks.

By TotalArsenal

37 thoughts on “Six Remaining Squad Questions for Arsenal before the TW shuts”

  • Well the two rumours or maybe three rumours buzzing around are;

    1) Pierre Emerick Aubameyang leaving Barcelona and signing for Chelsea just 7 months after leaving Arsenal on a free, although no transfer fee has so far been mentioned, therefore if true ( a big if) it might actually be for another free transfer in order to get his wages off of the Camp Nou books?

    But even if this rumour is true and Auba eventually joins Chelsea and there was a fee involved – and the mischief makers try to ‘stick it’ to Edu and Arteta – I’ll still hold onto totally to the belief that moving on Aubameyang was 100% the right thing to do.

    2) I’ve heard that Arsenal might cut their losses on Hector Bellerin and give him a free transfer after all, with no doubt part of the deal needing him to give up on the last year of his contract so that Arsenal will save £5m in wages and Hector will get his move to Real Betis or wherever he wants.

    That seems the best way as long as both Hector and his agent don’t expect Arsenal to give them a nice pay-off to ease the deal? Let’s see how that one goes…

    3) Looks like Lucas Torrieira has finally got the OK from his boss (wife) and a deal for £6m/£7m can be agreed with Galatasaray for his departure to Constantinople and that’ll then bring the final curtain down on yet another Sven Mislintat deal that was more ‘red eyes’ than ‘diamond eyes’…

  • I’ve heard a current Arsenal player, I can’t remember who maybe it was Xhaka, but they commented that Marquinhos reminded then of Gabriel Martinelli when he arrived so I reckon that’s your cover for Saka.

    Reiss Nelson is in his final year so unless he extends his contract I expect to see him leave, I hope he doesn’t but he’s English and therefore should carry a bit more value, there’s a way to go before the deadline so a lot can happen.

    I’m not too worried about Smudge getting minutes, not that he’s fit as of yet, but when he is he’ll play, probably from the bench initially but he’ll get plenty of minutes and you know what, other players do get injured as well…

  • There’s some really good comments going around, ignored by SKY/BT of course because it’s not bad Arsenal news, but the stuff is coming from Portuguese sources and they all seem to say that Vieira will surprise us all and that he’s an amazing footballer, so I’m just looking forward to that time when he can play, I’m not worried only excited.

    Yes, we need another player who can score goals another option to finish off those chances when we’re dominant so that we can kill teams like Man City early in games and coast the rest of the time, you know as we did vs Chelsea and Seville, Martinelli hasn’t shown in pre-season that he’s that goalscorer yet and as much as I hope he does I think Edu needs to be proactive and recruit another oven ready forward.

  • @ Allezkev
    It’s not Constantinople it is Istanbul!!
    You do not call New York or places in Australia, Canada etc by their previous names so do not do the same with Istanbul

  • I’m comfortable with our midfield, if we get Tielemans then good, if we don’t then 🤷‍♂️, we can cope, if Partey breaks down – as most of us expect – then it’ll mean a change in system, long term I think that Arteta/Edu need to find a replacement for Partey, a player who can replicate his skills but who is more durable.

    If Arsenal got a good offer for Holding then Arteta might be tempted to accept it, but Holding is a senior and respected member of the squad who shows the correct characteristics we want to see from our senior players, he’s well aware of his place in the pecking order as is Elneny but Rob has other qualities that are invaluable to a successful squad of players and he’ll get games because we’ll get injuries and will also want to rest players.

    If Arsenal don’t sign another player I’d still expect us to have a great season, if Arsenal sign another forward then we’re good to go across the squad. Victoria Concordia Crescit…

  • TA valid concerns. Partey understudy, right winger/forward is priority but we may not get this window. Interesting comment from Tierney though that the target for this reason seems champions league and a cup win. Works for me and that’s what I have been saying as well. If we achive this or win Europa league which will guarantee the above is fine by win irrespective of the league standing.
    But getting close to 80 points would be great.

  • All agreed re Aubameyang, K. Another lured and dumped by the Catalan honey trap. I am really glad Arsenal were able to offload him.

    Hector, lovely guy but yes needs to move on. How many full backs have been well below par in the last 15 years? Once they finally leave Arsenal you will seldom hear about them again.

  • Kev, I agree re another attacker. It just feels right to get one more 10+PL goals guy. I think it will be Gakpo. Maybe Pepe will play in the middle some times too…

  • For me, the priority would be to recruit someone to fulfil Partey’s role especially if any of the rumours about him are true. I hope they are not! He’s a great footballer but his availability is a concern. We have a solution in case Tierney is crocked, we need the same for TP.

    I would like to see Reiss given his chance but I suspect we may replace Pepe if he is moved on.

  • Le Gall

    John Locke was one of the greatest characters in television. The first couple seasons of Lost were incredible.. best character development in a large cast that I’ve ever seen. The (4th i think) episode … entitled “walkabout” blew my mind.

  • T,
    I wish Arteta was able to take the time and turn Reiss Nelson into his kind of player. If hard work and pressing could be instilled, he’d be great.., the other talent is there. Pepe is not the type of player that can start or play wide in this system… so if Saka couldn’t start some games, I’d hope to see Vieira.

  • Hats off to the writers indeed, J.!
    I used the “Constant” episode with some of my classes, it always worked out just fine
    Ayew-Eze- Zaha-Edouard, big test for our back-4, young Bill in particular
    COYG

  • When Xhaka went over, just as Zaha does 20 times a game, you could see it in Taylor’s face, he blew up for the simulation then realised it wax Xhaka and out came the yellow card, talk about a caution based on reputation.

  • At times it looked like we were within Helm’s Deep, with no Gandalf in sight, but WE MADE IT
    Anything but a victory would have been a Taylor-made result, anyway
    These 3 points will weigh heavy at the end of the season
    Fox Hunt ahead … can’t wait

  • Boy o boy, that opening 30 minutes was whirlwind football. Palace couldn’t budge out of their own half. Our three debutants were outstanding. The timing of the subs broke the Palace pressure. I’ll be smiling in my sleep tonight.

  • Interesting that the two boys from Man City looked shagged out and needed to come off..!

    You see at City, when they dominate they score two or three goals early and then just cruise the rest of the game because they’re clinical in front of goal and we’re still wasteful, at Arsenal it’s still by the skin of our teeth, no chance to relax.

    Jesus also discovered that at Arsenal you never get the fouls you deserve so he’s just gotta be prepared to get fouled and get nothing and get on with it, you ain’t at City now Gabriel…

  • I had intense Pre-match Tension, Kev and even after, it took me a while to shake off the after-effects. A great start to the campaign for us and considering that was the scene of (one of) our most significant defeats last season, I’d relish this 3 point.
    Credit the lads for digging in when the hosts started to have the upper hand in the contest. Saliba does look like a new signing and just so calm as he mopped up things. Gabriel Jesus played the Laca role, but a lot more dangerously (for the opponent); what an addition we have on our hands!
    It was the kind of game that could have ended with us going for and getting more goals, but letting a few in ourselves; but such is how mature the team is becoming that we played with pragmatic discipline to get the W. Nice work, boys. Now, we’ve gotten the first game out of the way, we can be more settled for the rest of the first few games.

  • The next 5 games involve Leicester City(H), Bournemouth (A), Fulham(H), Villa(H) and Man United(A). We can rack up a lot of points in these games and won’t be surprised if we are in the top 2 after round 6.
    That should help confidence needed when the big games come around.

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