Tag: premier league

Iwobi’s Best Game, Alexis Brings Theo and Iwobi to Life, Motoring Mustafi: 8 Positives Hull v Arsenal

TotalArsenal

Now that is the Arsenal most of us love so much: dominant, creative, strong and banging in goals left, right and centre.

After the midweek CL game, legs could have been tired and minds preoccupied, but we started the game with a ferocious tempo and appetite that drove the Tigers back in their proverbial cages and made us dominate the proceedings. When you play from home against a team that has made a good, ‘against expectations’, start to the season and which was rested during the week, you need to start well to set the tone and not get overwhelmed.

And that we did!

Hull City v Arsenal - Premier League

Arsene had opted for the same back five and double DM pivot as on Tuesday and for Alexis as our CF, once again. Ozil played in the hole/free movement role and two quick and energetic wingers, Iwobi and Theo, to complete the attack. A selection pattern is developing and it worked a treat this time. Rumours are that Giroud has a toe problem, either from a PSG player or Wenger’s punishment for reckless behaviour on the pitch… So on the bench we had the Ox and Perez to support the attack if required. It turned out that we did not really need them. 🙂

I guess the omission of Xhaka and, to a lesser extent, Elneny still surprised many of us, as both would have been raring to go, but we can see why Wenger is sticking to his settled DM pivot couple CoqZola: they were solid and dominated the game for the first seventy minutes or so. More about this later.

Maybe more of us are starting to see why Wenger wants to play Alexis as our ‘CF’ this season.

His movement, running off and with the ball, constant energy and involvement in the game is making all the difference. But what I loved most of this game is that Theo and Iwobi really are starting to understand what they need to do, and especially where they need to be, when Alexis goes deep(er) to create space behind him.

Attacking football for many is a matter of getting the ball to a super CF in dangerous positions as much as possible… and he will do the rest. But it is not that simple (any more). Winning football is about dominating proceedings and creating chances – and then taking them – through creating space, excellent passing football, team pressing, and clever running off and with the ball. Anyone can score and goals are ideally spread among a number of players, so we are less predictable and dependable on the one Aguero or Ibrahimovic. If you have watched the first halves of MC – MU and Chavs – Pool, you will know what I mean. And Arsenal’s first half display against the Tigers fits with these performances albeit against lesser opposition.

Of course we dominated the second half too but that was further influenced by the Livermore sending off. The only negatives of Saturday’s game were the missed penalty and the penalty we gave away, totally out of the blue. But also that is football.

Eight positives from Hull v Arsenal:

  1. Iwobi’s best game in the mighty red and white colours: he played so mature and composed you would believe he has been in Arsenal’s first team for years. He assisted two goals and you could argue our first one should have gone to him anyway. He has that rare ability to create time for himself when on the ball, and then he makes virtually always good decision on what to do next with his head held up. His passing and running with the ball is sharp but his sense of creating opportunities and executing them on the spot is even sharper. He also is often in the right place at the right time in and around the box, which again is very special for his age at the highest level of football. And I loved how he worked with Ozil, Sanchez and Theo. My MOTM;
  2. Alexis’ ability to create space and link midfield with attack AND Theo’s and Iwobi’s ability to benefit from this and link up with the fabulous Chilean (as already explained above). Before the game Arsenal had the best conversion rate of the league, and with four goals from nine attempts on target, I reckon this will have been enhanced further;
  3. Mustafi’s drive and reading of the game is awesome, and his partnership with Koz is blossoming quickly. This is allowing his CB partner to take it a bit more easy and preserve energy, which is just what the doctor has order for King Koz as the season is long… I loved Mustafi’s reading of the game and interventions, his drive to link up defence with midfield. In a way, he is our pace setter from the back. Long may it continue.
  4. Coq-Santi DM pivot. Wenger has been indicating that Xhaka is doing very well and now needs to be linked up with a DM partner as their collaboration and mutual understanding are pivotal to the team. Coq and Santi, as a partnership, are ahead right now. He also sees Xhaka as a box to box player, given his enormous energy, rather than a deep laying ‘Pirlo’, so it seems. So Granit needs to find himself a deep laying DM, which could be either Coq, Elneny, or even Santi. Let’s see what will happen midweek against NF re this;
  5. Theo is in his element. Theo will often frustrate us but playing in this ‘Alexis the holding AND mobile CF’ system, he is likely to thrive and deliver the goods more regularly. It creates space for him to which he is not just addicted but also very dependent on. Theo is a chancer and sometimes his attempts come off spectacularly and sometimes disastrously, but as a ‘second CF’ on the wing he will get his goals and assists. He scored a fine goal and was involved in a lot of our attacking play. Theo may have found himself a new lease of Gunner life;
  6. Ozil, Bellerin and Monreal featured less prominently in this game it seemed, but their running (with and without the ball) and passing were still vital for our dominant TEAM play. Mesut’s final ball is still not as sharp as we are used to, but can you imagine how we will play once he finds his form?! Chavs be warned! 🙂
  7. The quality of the bench. We are still missing the likes of Ramsey, Welbeck, BFG and Gabriel, and Ollie was left at home nursing his big one, but to be able to bring on Xhaka, Perez and Elneny to close out a game is a thing of beauty. And Granit’s bullet into the left corner for our last goal topped it all off;
  8. Wenger for evolving our game once more and getting the very best out of his players. Time to get fully behind him once more. The season just kicked off properly.

By TotalArsenal.

 

To Hull and Back with 3 Points? Starts for Perez, Giroud AND Alexis, and Xhaka/ Elneny could do it

TotalArsenal

Preview & Predicted Line-Up

The mini-hulk is back, back, back!!!
Best all-round CF in the PL, Giroud bags two more goals! Thanking The Guardian for picture.

I have more or less given up on predicting the starting eleven. The squad is big and Arsene needs to keep a lot of players happy; but he also needs to field a team that has a very good chance to get a result and for that he needs to choose his players carefully.

Against PSG Arsene surprised us with selecting Coquelin and Santi for their second starts in four days, leaving Xhaka and Elneny on the bench. He also opted to start with Giroud and Perez on the bench, giving rough diamonds Ox and Iwobi a chance to shine at the highest platform of club football. Arsene knows a lot more about his players than us, and I have peace with his choices, even though I would have preferred a different line up on Tuesday.

Against Hull I expect a tight game with a lot of possession for the boys in red and white and the Tigers attacking us mainly on the counter. So a good game to bring in Ollie as he can help us crack open the Hullish parked busses.

On the wings I would like us to play Perez and Alexis, and give Theo a chance to come on if the game was to open up properly, and if he is indeed fit enough to play. Ozil needs another game to play himself into form and the prospect of playing with Giroud, Perez and Alexis should surely excite him.

The double pivot is a harder choice to make. If Hull will indeed park the bus for most of the game, then Santi is a good one to have in terms of supporting Ozil in finding gaps. But Santi already played two games this week and we don’t want to see him get injured. Maybe it is time for Xhaka and Elneny to start this game. Both can push up and support the creative side of things, and both are good to keep the Tigers hemmed into their own half.

The back four pick themselves again, although I would not be surprised to see either Debuchy or Gibbs, or even both, get a start.

My ideal starting eleven for tomorrow game is:

ars-v-hull-september

Enjoy the game fellow Gunners. COYRRG!

By TotalArsenal.

 

Cech/Koz/Coq/Santi ALL MOTM; Mustafi at Home; Perez Promising: Review and 8 Positives

TotalArsenal

Three very welcome points is very important, of course. And there is no doubt that we needed a dollop of red and white luck to get them against a resilient and good footballing Southampton.

Arsene made three changes from our win against the Hornets and it is fair to say we did not start brightly. The team lacked energy and drive, despite playing three fast players up front with the Ox, Perez and TheO, and playing two play makers in Santi and Mesut. The latter two started very quietly and the former three hardly had any of the ball in the first part of the first half. The Saints looked calm and in control, playing some easy on the eye football with plenty of penetration and danger up-front – just like they did against the Mancs a few weeks ago. Especially Tadic, Redmond and Rodriguez, supported deeper by the excellent ex-Chav Romeu, were very comfortable on the ball and we did not make it hard enough for them.

They scored from a well taken free-kick that needed a big dollop of luck though, as Cech scored his second career own goal with his back pushing the ball over the line. You would have expected Arsenal to up the tempo after the goal but we still lacked collective drive, with Santi being pushed back too much and the four of Ozil, Ox, Theo and Perez not involved in the game enough.

The game needed something special and it came from one of the two Arsenal birthday boys: King Koz.

Our CB scored a brilliant overhead kick that will have ha the approval of Zlatan, no doubt. We did not do enough until then to deserve the equaliser but Laurent has a knack of scoring very important goals, as he did four times last season.

That goal gave us back our mojo, at least in terms of playing football in the Saints’ half rather than ours. All of a sudden the Saints were happy to park the buss and we could push forward both Mustafi and the energetic Coquelin to help the attackers. Yet we missed sharpness, movement and creativity, and this especially from Ozil and our mid-wingers. We also missed the goal threat of Giroud and/or Alexis up-front which made the team look like it was missing its normal focussed and aggressive identity.

For some reason, the combination of players in our starting eleven did not work well yesterday. Was it perhaps too much to ask of Perez to start with the Ox next to him rather than Alexis or Giroud? Theo and Ox are the sort of players who have good moments in a game but do not add enough to the team to be picked together in the starting eleven imo. One of them is more than enough, and then I still think Iwobi, or indeed my personal favourite Joel Campbell (now out on loan unfortunately), would serve the team better on many occasions.

The second half started not much better. Tempo too low, movement too predictable, Ozil not involved enough, and Perez struggling to translate his presence in the box into clear cut chances and a goal. Luckily, Santi was getting into the grove now, working hard to get the team going by finding gaps and getting as close as possible to the Saints’ D’.

It was clear though that we needed to bring on Giroud and Alexis to lift the game and get that extra bit of quality into the box, even though we started to play a lot better from around the 55th minute. Perez worked hard and you can see how he could fit into the team, it will take a bit of time though.

As soon as we brought on the Frenchman and Chilean we looked sharper, but we also gave a way a couple of quite big chances that could have cost us dearly. And that tells you all about the risks and opportunities associated with substitutions, and why Wenger often waits longer with them than most of us want him.

Luckily, we got the penalty and Santi was cool enough to convert it.

Eight positives:

  1. Mustafi settled in quickly and looked solid and composed. Really good to see him drive forward regularly as well. Need to see him more games but that was pretty impressive in front of the home crowd;
  2. Birthday boy Koz had an outstanding performance and scored a superb goal – so happy he is still a Gooner and let’s hope he will be signed up to end his career at THOF;
  3. Le Coq had his pecker up and was awesome throughout the game, both in defence and supporting the attack. Xhaka will have been rested for Tuesday’s game no doubt – and I expect us to play Perez, Theo and Alexis up front for that one so Xhaka can help us beat the Parisian Oilers on the break – but yesterday we needed the steel and defensive discipline of Francis Coquelin. And boy did he deliver;
  4. Santi moving forward in the second half made a big difference in terms of our attacking intent. Ozil was not at his very best today and he needed Santi to add creativity. On top of all his fine passes and crosses, he produced a calm and venomous penalty that left the time wasting Foster picking the ball out of the net. 🙂
  5. The spine of Cech, Koz(Mustafi), Coq, Santi, and eventually Giroud, held strong and delivered a performance worthy of the Arsenal. Cech, Koz, Coq and Santi were altogether my men of the match. And Ozil and Alexis added the necessary quality to get us over the line, even though the former did not have his best day ever;
  6. The full backs were driven once again and added a lot of width to the team, but both still need to improve their final ball into the box. Good to see them both taking chances themselves as well, and especially Bellerin was pretty close to scoring a Theo-esque diagonal daisy-cutter;
  7. Cech’s presence saved us at least two points today, making Shane Long rush and waste his two good opportunities in the second half;
  8. Perez’s movement and hunger and sheer guts to take on the CF role at the home of football was awesome. I liked his energy and willingness to run and run and get into any available spaces. I rate this Saints’ team highly and reckon they will finish in the top 7-10 this season once they get going. Especially defensively, they are very good and made it hard for our attackers. So not an easy start for Lucas, but more is surely to come.

Up next are the Parisian Oilers. Let’s load the Canon. 😉

By TotalArsenal.

Arsene’s Dilemma: Perez or Giroud… or ‘Peroud’?

TotalArsenal

 

Vardy is 5ft 10ins. Perez is 5ft 11 1/2ins. Vardy is right footed. Perez is left foot. Vardy is at his best motoring the left channel. Perez is at his best motoring the right channel. Discount these mirror differences and you couldn’t tell one from the other in terms of playing style. Same pharmacokinetic data, different trade names. To Wenger, Perez is what the doctor ordered. He tried to sign Vardy but it did not work out. No hay problema as he crossed over to Spain and bought Lucas Perez.

What does it all tell us. Well, well, well…..Wenger’s mind is very crafty and we might all still miss his point, but to my inquisitive mind he seems to want his team to be the king of the quick transition, like his teams of the invincible era. Giving more credence to this belief is the fact that he has installed in deep midfield a bloke called Xhaka who pings accurate 30yds plus passes several times per match. In the Bundesliga he was second to Xavi Alonso in long accurate passes last season.

To fortify this belief even further we have to remember that already in the team is a Mesut Ozil, the best through ball provider in Europe. Apart from Perez, Òzil also has the trickery and pace of Sanchez as well as the exquisite off the ball runs in blistering pace of Walcott, all to feed.

All these, however, is hearing one side of the story only. If we don’t hear the other side, our logic would land us in dreamland.

Last season there was a disproportionate number of matches in the EPL that ended in favour of teams with less possession than should normally be expected. Leicester City won the league with 44.80% possession sitting at the 18th position on the possession table. Epl teams have learnt how to sit deep, frustrate and counter. I really wonder if our Invincibles wouldn’t have found the proposition a lot tougher now.

Do we begin to sit deep? Sitting deep is essentially a tactics fashioned for neutralizing superior fire power. Arsenal is a highly technical team, one of the best in the league. It stands to reason that its philosophy must be hinged on the utilization of its superior weapons i.e. to attack and dominate games, of course without prejudice to being committed to defending as a team.

With our superiority, it is inevitable that we would dominate most of our matches. That means that most of the teams would pack buses against us. With teams parking buses when they play us, where would we find the spaces for the quick transition machine that we have assembled? Where do we find the spaces for the fleet-footed anchor legs, except when we are countering the opponents’ counter?

Countering the counter, equipped with this machine that he has diligently contrived, must be making Monsieur Wenger salivate. But expect them to come few and far between. We, however, should not forget that there are teams and situations where toe to toe would be inevitable. Xhaka, Òzil, Sanchez, Walcott, Perez…….that’s awesome. Something tells me that a great number of such teams would live to regret. Still there remains this big task of the unrelenting parked buses teams. Stubborn, dogged, unyielding, well organized.

Giroud is a denizen of the box, both ends. His mailing address is ‘The Box’ and the boxes are where the goal posts are. Got that? In the box Giroud enjoys air supremacy. He’s got wonderful box flicks and box knockdowns. His box positioning is second to none. He is a right box bully. Ask defenders. A bulldozer for the buses.

Herein lies Wenger’s dilemma. Giroud the box bulldozer versus Perez the fleet-footed anchor leg. We wait to see what the wily old fox will do. I will give you a tip. He might do all. Giroud now, Perez then, Giroud and Perez also.

An exciting season awaits us. Bring it on!

By Pony Eye

Holding/Koz, Xhaka/Santi, Perez/Giroud/Theo to Start v Saints: Predicted Arsenal Line-Up

TotalArsenal

I guess the one good thing about the international break is that we look even more forward to the weekend Arsenal game than normal. Add to this the fact that Mustafi and Perez have been training with the team this week, and with that prompting rumours of them both starting, and we are even more excited about our home game against the Saints.

I watched Southampton against MU a few weeks ago and was very impressed with their style of football. They had plenty of half-chances but lacked the quality up front to hurt the Mancs. For a long time the Saints were in the game but then fellow Dutchman, Jordie Clasie, gave away a very bad, unforced penalty and the game was lost. Let’s hope they are as generous with mistakes on Saturday as they were then.

The Saints pass the ball round well and will give us a game in midfield: a battle we must win if we want to take three points from this encounter. So it is important to get the double DM pivot right. I am tempted to play Elneny next to either Xhaka or Coq as he is brilliant in terms of making himself available for a pass and then not losing the ball. For me this will be key.

Having said that, I reckon we could start with Santi as we are playing at home, as long as he is prepared to stay deep when required. Getting this balance right will be vital. I am going to go with both Xhaka and Santi as they add so much to our attacking play and I am hoping we will be able to press Southampton well back into their own half for most of the time. This would suit the three football geniuses Granit, Santi and Mesut very, very well.

I have a feeling that Alexis will be on the bench for this one. After such a long flight it would be wise to rest the Chilean firecracker as we have a massive CL game in midweek. This should allow Arsene to give Perez a debut, and I reckon it will be on the left, with Giroud as our CF and Theo on the other flank. Wenger may start with the Ox on the left and then give Perez a chance later on, but I somehow feel he will opt for the newly acquired Spaniard.

submit football lineup

At the back I reckon Wenger will stick with Holding and Koz for this one. Young Holding has been doing very well and I think Wenger will want to ease Mustafi in. I guess it will also be a nice confidence boost for Holding if he is not taken out of the starting eleven straightaway.

So there you have my predicted starting eleven for Saturday’s game. Of course we will find out more about fitness levels and injuries of our players during tomorrow’s press conference, which may change my predictions, but for now this is what I am going for.

How would you line up the team?

By TotalArsenal.

Arsenal have Excellent new Signings but these two Spanish Bullfighters are Invaluable in 2016-17

TotalArsenal

Whilst Arsenal have strengthened almost every other area in the team during the last twelve months or so, the full backs were left standing. And quite rightly so, as we have some of the finest full backs in the country and they fit nicely into the style of play of the team.

Full backs at Arsenal are really more wing backs than anything else. They have a massive responsibility within the team both in defence, midfield and attack. On the left we have the energetic and tenacious Nacho Monreal, and on the right we have speed machine and excellent recoverer, Bellerin. As back up we have the loyal and ‘safe pair of hands’ Gibbs and the experienced Debuchy, and Jenkinson is also getting closer to a return to the team.

Image result for hector bellerin images

We all know about the defensive responsibilities of a full back but Arsenal now also rely on them heavily to provide width and penetration from the wings. The traditional winger seems to be a dying breed as more and more teams prefer a hybrid between a midfielder and attacker to play close to the nr10 and CF. Good wing backs are hard to find as the total package requires a lot of skills.

With Bellerin we probably have the most talented wing back in the country and I am pleased the club were able to hold on to him this season. There is no doubt that he can still learn a few things, but he has the rare ability to combine very fast running and close ball control with a cool head both when he attacks and defends. He reads the game very well for such a young player and therefore is often in the right place at the right time.

With Nacho we have a player who gets better the more he plays, a bit like Ramsey in a way. Once he gets properly going Monreal is awesome and a very important player for the team. He has great drive and determination to win and usually finds a very good balance between defending and attacking. It is fair to say that Nacho has also been part of our recent failure to secure our left side of the defence, which was so cruelly exposed against Pool during the season’s opener for example. But I reckon that the team will get this right and Monreal will play a key part in doing so.

Image result for Nacho Monreal images

The one area that needs a step improvement is the final ball into the box by our full backs. Not that they do badly. Monreal and Bellerin both played 36 PL games (!!!) and the former had a total of three assists and averages 0.8 key passes per PL game, whilst the latter had five assists and 0.7 key passes per game, and he also managed to score once. Debuchy did not play last season so no stats available for him, but Kieran had 15 PL games (only three starts), had no assists and only 0.1 key passes per game, but he did manage to score a goal for us in the PL last season (as well as in the CL).

It is pretty amazing that Bellerin, who will be ‘only’ 21 till March next year, managed to play so many games in such a physically and mentally demanding position last season. And the same goes for Nacho who is slowly entering the autumn years of his football career but still managed to play 36 PL games.

I love these Spanish bullfighters and let’s hope they can play a key role in our season once again. And if they can get the final ball into the box just that little bit sharper, we should see even more key passes, assists and goals from our full backs. If we want to win the title than this is one of the key improvements required, and I reckon they can deliver it.

Bring it on!

By TotalArsenal.

 

Arsenal don’t Need a Super CF: Giroud, Alexis and Perez can score 50 PL goals and win us the Title

TotalArsenal

“Behind what hills does happiness hide, to lurk and plot its return?” Andrew Greig.

With Lucas Perez Arsenal have added a very interesting player. This is a bit of a Wenger gamble but if Lucas can add similar league goals (17) and assists (8) per game as he did in Spain, he could make the difference this season… and the difference is not finishing second but first.

We missed about 10 goals last season to clinch the title, and although I am aware that every season has its own dynamics, I feel we will go one higher if we keep our defence as tight as last season, or ideally a bit tighter, and score about a dozen more goals.

Wenger can now mix and match his attack per game if he so wishes, only to get to a regular strongest three up front eventually. Will it be Alexis – Perez – Theo, or Perez – Alexis – Theo, or will it be Perez – Giroud – Alexis?

Best all-round CF in the PL, Giroud bags two more goals! Thanking The Guardian for picture.

It is also quite possible that the likes of Iwobi, Welbeck (once he is back), Akpom, the Ox or even Willock will play themselves in to the starting three up front. And then regular blogger Shard will, quite rightly so, point out that we also have Sanogo who seems to be good cover for Giroud’s holding/enabling CF role.

I know some wanted a super CF up front but I am really happy with the options we have in attack now. For sure, Wenger will change the starting three sometimes to deal with the tactics and strengths of the opposition and to keep everybody happy, but he will also be keen to combine the strongest three as much as possible. I reckon that would have to be Alexis, Ollie and Perez, and if together they can get 45-50 PL goals we will win the league this season. The rest will come from the other attackers, midfielders and defenders.

Although this firepower up front has the mouth water running, I am just as excited about the service they will be receiving from four super midfielders: Xhaka, Cazorla, Rambo and Ozil.

Normally only three of these four midfield maestros will play, unless Wenger opts to play one of them on the wing in tight games against strong opponents. With these midfielders anything is possible, and Coquelin and Elneny will add the necessary steel and composure if and when required.

Xhaka can turn the game from defence to counter attack with one diagonal long distance pass from deep. Rambo and/or Santi can add the integrate play to dominate the midfield and creatively find the gaps and passes to launch deadly attacks. Furthermore, Rambo adds his engine to connect the defence with midfield, and midfield with the attack. And Mesut is our third dimension of finding space and time to instigate the winning attacking formula time and again. Which other team has such a talented group of creative, visionary midfielders that add a number of dimensions to our attacking play?

Of course we will have to see how this will work out in practice now. But I reckon our options up front and in midfield are now very strong and will make us very unpredictable and thus hard to play against. Rather than a predictable, one-dimensional feed the super striker game like they prefer in Manchester, we will go for the title by spreading the goals amongst three or four attackers and feeding them from all angles.

Whether it will work out remains to be seen, but that is what the seasonal football journey is all about! 😉

By TotalArsenal

Jack to the Cherries, Gnabry Auf Wiedersehn, Who else is Going: Gibbs, Zelalem, Ospina?

TotalArsenal

Join us on the blog for Transfer Deadline Day Developments!!

This has been the best final deadline day for a long time.

No stress or desperation because we have already brought in extra defenders, an extra midfielder, and an extra attacker is in the bag. On top of this, we are not being linked with a potential departure of a star player and are getting some cash back by selling Gnabry and loaning out a few players who need to develop in order to make it eventually in the first team at Arsenal… or not.

I would have kept Jack but enough has been said about his imminent loan move already. According to the BBC the Cherries have the best chance of ‘loan-signing’ Wilshere and that would not be a bad place for him to play himself into form. I really like Eddie Howe: he likes his team to play passing football and survived easily in the PL last season by doing so. Jack will get a proper chance to shine there and then he can come back to join the mighty red and white in January or next season if must be.

It looks like Gnabry is not too unhappy to leave the Gunners behind and has signed for Werder Bremen. I guess Arsenal cannot keep all the youngsters and have to get some return on our investment in the youth academy, but I hope we will not come to regret this in a Pogbaesque way 😀

From what I saw of the young German at the Olympics, I don’t think he was ready to play in the first team regularly despite his impressive goal tally of six, but it would have been nice to see him play and develop in a red and white shirt. Ah well, at least the Ox-believers get to see him for another season at least 😉

It should also open space for the likes of Willock and Akpom to make the squad this season and they are easily as talented as Gnabry.

I have a feeling that we will still see somebody else leave the club before midnight. It could be Debuchy who will want to play more regularly, even though I can see Wenger not wanting to let him go until Jenkinson is fully fit again.

It could also be Ospina or Zelalem, although the latter might be encouraged to stay now that Jack is going out on loan… and Ospina may be forced to stay as we need a safe pair of hands on the bench in case Cech gets injured. Gibbs is  being linked with a move to Liverpool and again I don’t think we can let him go as an obvious replacement is not available from within the squad. Yet I feel there could be something in it somehow.

Let’s wait and see what happens in the most philosophical way possible. 🙂

Image result for Laid Back People

Join us on the blog for anymore note worthy developments!

By TotalArsenal.

 

Not Jack but the Ox should hit the Road

TotalArsenal

30 hours to go till the deadline of transfer deadline day and it looks like Arsenal have done very good business this summer. We did not spend a silly £90m on Pogba but got Holding, Xhaka, Mustafi and Perez instead which will turn out to be far better business for us on the field, which matters most to us of course. Okay the new German defender still needs to be confirmed but this should be a formality.

If you look at the last twelve months or so, Arsenal have added quality players in all four lines: GK Cech, Defenders Holding and Mustafi, Midfielders Elneny and Xhaka and attacker Perez.  We kept all our quality players until now and let’s hope we will survive the next 30 hours as well, and then we have a very, very strong squad (see also the previous post).

It is now time to allow a few players to go on loan or to be sold, as we need to make space for some very promising youngsters and create plenty of playing time for the new arrivals.

It appears that Arsenal are willing to loan out Jack Wilshere but I hope we will keep him. Jack needs to play of course, but he also needs to look after himself and at Arsenal he can get playing time without too much demand on him (as in having to play every game). I also want him to work hard and compete with the likes of Xhaka, Ozil and Cazorla to get into the team. He has the talent to make it. On the other hand, if he lands at a club with a good manager who will use him wisely he could also prosper.

It looks like Chambers will go out on loan and I reckon that is a wise decision. Any youngster who gets bought by Arsenal should go out and learn to stand on their own feet via a loan spell. I wished we had done the same with the likes of Theo and Ox. Chambers is a good player but he has not made enough impression for Wenger to believe he is ready to be a regular starter at Arsenal. So go out there Calum and work your socks off. And from what I saw of Middlesbrough, they try to play good football which should suit him.

The rumour that Gnabry could be sold to Bayern is not very good news. I don’t know the exact contract situation of Gnabry and the club might not have much choice in the matter, but I hope the German is not leaving because he does not feel he will get a proper opportunity to shine at Arsenal.

And that brings me to the Ox. It feels like he has been forever at Arsenal, yet he is still young and keeps threatening to break through. Alex has his moments and we are all in awe of his speed and close ball control, but when it comes to delivering the goods in terms of goals and assists it is just not happening for him. Once again this season, he has periods in which he plays well and is part of the team, but sooner or later  he will drop off and become invisible. He was easily our weakest player against Watford on Saturday and this has been the case too many times.

Thanks to http://www.Arsenal.com for training picture
Two great guys, but will they still be at Arsenal in 2017?

I have said for years here on Bergkampesque that the Ox should go on a season long loan and establish himself outside Arsenal, where he simply has been pampered and protected too much. He will then come back with confidence and will have learned to turn his talents into hard, bankable outcomes.

I now feel it may be too late and would not be surprised if he gets sold in the next 30 hours. With Perez, Alexis, Theo and Ramsey – the Welshman is not a natural winger but he offers extra defensive cover and a very decent goal threat when played out wide – we have four quality players to operate on the wings: and if they are all fit and in form, they should normally play. But as it stands, we also have youngsters like Iwobi, Gnabry and Willock knocking very hard on the door. I feel the Ox has had his chance and we need to create space in the team, so it is out on loan or cashing in time. Time to hit the road, not so much for Jack but definitely for the Ox.

By TotalArsenal

Strongest Arsenal 11 and Bench with Lucas Perez, Xhaka, Mustafi: A Squad for Silverware

TotalArsenal

Imagine everybody is fit in the squad: what would be your first team?

My first team would probably be this one:

submit football lineup

I would happily replace Ramsey with Elneny but I feel that the Welshman is a bit further in his development and deserves a place in the first 11 now. I would also be happy to play Alexis as our CF as Arsene has done recently. That would mean that Giroud would be on the bench and one of Theo, Iwobi or Ramsey (with Elneny or Santi taking his place) to take Alexis’ place on the wing.

It is fair to say that I don’t know much about Perez and Mustafi but I am assuming that Wenger has bought them to improve the first team rather than place them in the wider squad. Perez’s goals and assists stats are favourable compared to Theo, The Ox etc, so I think he will play in our strongest possible team, and most likely on the wing. I am also assuming that Wenger could only entice Mustafi to Arsenal with the promise that he will normally start rather than be on the bench. However, it could be that he needs time to settle in and both Holding and the BFG are very good alternatives to have.

So for me the above line up is about the strongest we could field IF everybody is fit.

And what would the bench look like?

Well wow, our bench would look awesome if Wenger could pick from the squad with a full health bill.

Ospina would be Cech’s cover. A good goalie with a lot of confidence. For central defensive cover we could put on our bench Holding, the BFG or Gabriel: all fine options if you ask me. For full back cover I would put Gibbs on the bench.

For midfield cover we can pick from Elneny, Jack, Coquelin and Santi. It would be really hard to leave any of these players out… In fact, I feel they should all play when fully fit… but there is no space for them.

For attack we can pick from Walcott, Welbeck, Iwobi, Gnabry, Ox and Akpom. Again it would be very hard to leave some of these players out.

We can only pick seven from the above mentioned players for the bench, and if I had to chose it would probably be: Ospina, BFG, Gibbs, Elneny, Jack, Santi, Welbeck.

What the above demonstrates is that we have a very strong squad now and I cannot wait to see them all in action this season. It is a squad with the depth, hunger and quality to win silverware.

What would be your strongest first team and strongest bench if everybody would be fit?

By TotalArsenal