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From optajoe:

5 - Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is now Arsenal's joint top scorer in games played at Wembley Stadium (5, level with Alexis Sanchez). Aubameyang's five goals at the ground have come in the space of 42 days.

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brumbys wrote:
Leggy wrote:
paulm wrote:

Well they had a massive break this year already... the rushed schedule when they came back was not good for injuries but if they got through that ok then I don't see why they shouldn't be in pretty good shape now.

Tomorrow night is the community shield. EPL starts Sept 12.

Also 100000 quid a week might help.

Bingo.

yes, because that's how our bodies work. The more money you have the less likely you are to get injured...Shark by that logic Messi and Ronaldo should be playing every day. 

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Nothing sweeter than beating them. Would be a fudgeing travesty to lose AMN at this point too.

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ajc28 wrote:

Nothing sweeter than beating them. Would be a fudgeing travesty to lose AMN at this point too.

I didn't realise how much I enjoyed beating Liverpool until I jumped up and down celebrating after the penalty shootout and proceeded to accidentally punch myself in the face and knock my glasses off. Was well worth it though. 

I think I'm going to order a black goalkeeper shirt with Martinez 26 on the back when I order my new home shirt. It's one of the nicer keeper shirts we've had.

WeeNix
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How come adidas can't give us a GK kit like that rather than the highlighter green mess we've got!?

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How fudgeing great were all our penalties too? I wasn't overly confident of any of them bar Auba. Thought Luiz's was going to end up in row Z.

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kwlap wrote:
brumbys wrote:
Leggy wrote:
paulm wrote:

Well they had a massive break this year already... the rushed schedule when they came back was not good for injuries but if they got through that ok then I don't see why they shouldn't be in pretty good shape now.

Tomorrow night is the community shield. EPL starts Sept 12.

Also 100000 quid a week might help.

Bingo.

yes, because that's how our bodies work. The more money you have the less likely you are to get injured...Shark by that logic Messi and Ronaldo should be playing every day. 

When you're paid £100K a week to get up and go again you're pretty motivated to push yourself into playing. Henry spoke at length about playing through pain, and I don't think it's unfair to expect these boys to pick up and go again so quickly after the season ended.

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Looks like the defensive clear out is on:

Mavropanos - Loaned out

Medley - Loaned out

Osei-Tutu - Loaned out

Holding - Almost loaned out to Newcastle

Sokratis - Almost sold to Napoli (£4.5m)

Kolasinac - Almost loaned to Schalke

Leaves you with Bellerin, Tierney, AMN, Saka for the fullback spots, Chambers, Luiz, Mari, Saliba, Mustafi for CB - given it sounds like we have another CB coming in you'd think outgoings aren't finished yet.

Elneny could be likely to stick around for the season give Ceballos doesn't sound close to a return and Torreira has a foot out the door, while the Partey links have grown quiet and as much as I'd love to have him Auour is probably out of our budget.

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Annnnd breaking tonight Mhikitaryan is officially a perm AS Roma player for no transfer fee. Good result to clear those wages and end the worst deal in football history. After my post above about midfield looks like Ceballos is coming back on loan - hopefully with an agreement to purchase next summer already negotiated. He isn’t in Spain’s squad for this weeks League of Nations fixtures so hopefully he’s free to come join us soon.

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brumbys wrote:
After my post above about midfield looks like Ceballos is coming back on loan - hopefully with an agreement to purchase next summer already negotiated. He isn’t in Spain’s squad for this weeks League of Nations fixtures so hopefully he’s free to come join us soon.

No buy clause as RM don't want to sell him - they can see (rightly) that if he's with us he's improving/appreciating... then they either bring him back into the fold with a new contract or sell him at what will be a higher value than we'd be willing/able to agree now. 
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Gabriel is all but signed, apparently in isolation or quarantine now, will be announced when he's done.

Saw the Ceballos stuff. Very keen to get him back with our midfield stocks so empty. We might purchase Partey or someone else perhaps, but even then we're still light on numbers, we need midfielders. Ceballos is a cheap way to stop-gap another season while we sort that area out.

I really hope we hang on to AMN and Martinez, and I wonder how solid all these rumours are around those two. When it comes down to it, they both still have multiple seasons to run with us. We don't have to sell now to maximise value either. We could afford to forcibly hang on to them all season and watch those values rise, and then either sell or re-sign. I think AMN has 3 years to run, and Martinez 2?

Are we going to play 3-4-3 all season? We may well do if we don't get enough midfielders in. Will be interesting to see how Willian is deployed when available too.

Also sounds like Auba is very close to re-signing, woo hoo, still waiting on that to buy my shirt!

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paulm wrote:

Also sounds like Auba is very close to re-signing, woo hoo, still waiting on that to buy my shirt!

Ditto - in the club font as well. Same as the FA Cup final shirt.

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Looks like Ceballos will be back on loan. I think that ends our Partey and Aouar chases. Not sure how real either of them was though. 

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kwlap wrote:

Looks like Ceballos will be back on loan. I think that ends our Partey and Aouar chases. Not sure how real either of them was though. 

We still need more, Gueoundouzi, Ozil, Torreira all possibly out the door, and can't imagine Arteta is happy with Elneny.

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Side note, we've hit 900 pages of a thread - well done chaps!

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Magalhães is official. woot woot. I still know nothing of him, but he sounds promising. 

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Not watched him but he sounds good. Hopefully better than the last Gabriel. We seem to have a lot of defenders now.

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kwlap wrote:

Looks like Ceballos will be back on loan. I think that ends our Partey and Aouar chases. Not sure how real either of them was though. 

I dont reckon this ends any midfielder chases, we seriously need numbers in there. I reckon it could be the only area we are actually looking for signings.

Notable things I've seen overnight;

- Gabriel officially announced

- Ceballos sounds like he will come back for another one season loan, potentially with an option to buy. Reports that he's refused 3 other offers as he really wants to return

- PSG to make an offer for Bellerin. We're open to selling to him if the price is right, otherwise would happily keep

- Talk that Martinez and AMN rumours were rubbish, both players set to stay

- Sokratis to Napoli talks ongoing, 4.5m fee touted

- Kolasinac to Shalke talks ongoing, loan touted

- Atletico Madrid interested in Lacazette, and we're open to selling. 2 years on his contract so should command a decent fee

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ajc28 wrote:

Not watched him but he sounds good. Hopefully better than the last Gabriel. We seem to have a lot of defenders now.

Yep. Fully expecting Holding, Chambers, Sokratis and maybe Mustafi all to go. Holding/Chambers perhaps loans. Chambers situation complicated by him coming back from injury, but Fulham are apparently interested after he was very good for them on loan a while back. Apparently Newcastle are fans of Holding.

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If Chillwell is £50m how on earth do PSG think they'll get away with £25m?!

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well well well...

Alexis Sanchez on joining Manchester United: “After the first training session, I realised many things & when I got back home, I told my agent if I could cancel the contract & go back to Arsenal.”

https://twitter.com/arseblog/status/13017507572182...

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Dani Ceballos signed on loan for another season

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So it sounds like we're still going after both Aouar and Partey. Both would be brilliant signings and a hell of a window for us if we got them. With Ceballos back and Xhaka in form that's a decent step up in midfield talent. Would definitely be the end of Torreira, and if AMN does stay you might imagine Willock might be best getting a loan spell in.

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brumbys wrote:

So it sounds like we're still going after both Aouar and Partey. Both would be brilliant signings and a hell of a window for us if we got them. With Ceballos back and Xhaka in form that's a decent step up in midfield talent. Would definitely be the end of Torreira, and if AMN does stay you might imagine Willock might be best getting a loan spell in.

I'm not sure how real the prospects of either Partey or Aouar are. I know we've made offers, but to do both deals would be around 100million, just not sure we have the capital or quality players to sell to raise it. 

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kwlap wrote:
brumbys wrote:

So it sounds like we're still going after both Aouar and Partey. Both would be brilliant signings and a hell of a window for us if we got them. With Ceballos back and Xhaka in form that's a decent step up in midfield talent. Would definitely be the end of Torreira, and if AMN does stay you might imagine Willock might be best getting a loan spell in.

I'm not sure how real the prospects of either Partey or Aouar are. I know we've made offers, but to do both deals would be around 100million, just not sure we have the capital or quality players to sell to raise it. 

Don't forget the magic of amortisation & the impact of some of the salaries going. If they're on 5 year deals that'll only be an immediate £20m hit.

On the salaries from we're free of Mhiki, haven't paid a loan fee for Ceballos just his salary, and should lose Kolasinac, Holding, Sokratis, Torreira's wages too. Even if we only got £40 for that lot between transfer fees & loan fees we'd be saving at least £300K P/M or £15.6m P/A

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Which 3 arsenal players are you boys running in the fantasy PL teams? I'm running Auba, Saka, and Tierney

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Not playing but I'd have probably chosen those three as well to be honest... not sure how much it's changed but when i used to play it was critical to choose players who always start, and defensive midfielders were generally a no-no. 

On that basis, those three players probably best fit the criteria from an Arsenal perspective right now. Perhaps Xhaka is the only other guaranteed starter outside of those three at this point in time. Maybe Saka isn't actually guaranteed either... not quite sure which position he will take in our side at the moment. In our 3-4-3 he's probably best suited to the right sided forward role, like in the community shield game, but that is Pepe's position... and Pepe doesn't really play anywhere else.

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I've gone with Auba, Saka, Tierney too. Wanted to go with Martinez as a cheaper keeper but don't know if he's going to play yet so went with Saka as I think he'll start this week having played the Community Shield and others being later to start training. His cheap price also gave me a bit more to play with for strikers too. Feel like Tierney could be a points machine if he stays injury free too.

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Ornstein reporting today that Auba's new deal is imminent, 3 year contract which has the ability to make him the highest earner in the club (I'm guessing that'll be hugely based on incentives to achieve).

Need another midfielder and a couple of exits and we'd be doing OK.

Apparently PSG are in for a Guendouzi swap deal with Draxler. I'd take it in a heart beat given Draxler is only 26 still and would offer a lot more in that position.

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Head coach role scrapped, Arteta now First Team Manager. 

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Great result today, Gabriel was MOTM for me.

Few quotes floating around suggesting that Holding & Lacazette are staying

If that’s the case you can’t imagine any more attacking or defensive changes - a part from some CB departures.

I think we’ll have Luiz, Mari, Holding, Saliba & Gabriel as our CB’s, mean Chambers, Sokratis, and Mustafi need to move on - hopefully Chambers on loan to replace Luiz next year.

Martinez looks set to join Villa, £16m rising to £20m. Don’t know much of that we’ll put into other players, I think it’ll probably just fund his replacement.

I wonder if they’ve given up on a midfield purchase and are settling with Elneny, Xhaka, Ceballos, Torreira, Willock and trying time re-inspire Guendouzi & Ozil...

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There's plenty of time yet - Emi's gone and more will happen closer to the deadline. Chambers will go (probable loan), Sokratis will go, Mustafi may stay til the Jan window, or not (depends on the Luiz injury I reckon).  

In midfield; Torreira, Guendouzi, and Mo will go - JW may also go on loan to a Premier League club where he'll play plenty minutes - and I wouldn't be too surprised or upset if ES-R does the same(tho maybe to a top tier Champ club or to the continent). I reckon there will definitely be a Partey... the question is whether there'll be some Aouar action also.

It'll be quiet for another couple of weeks I think before things start to happen.

Also - an Icelandic keeper?... we'll have the coolest defence in the league!

(I'll get me coat).

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Surge wrote:

Also - an Icelandic keeper?... we'll have the coolest defence in the league!

I thought we were lining up David Raya from Brentford? Has that fallen through? He is quality. I'm sad to see Martinez go but I get how he wants to play more regularly but it was fantastic to have two first class keepers to choose from.

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Not sure re Raya - he's the preferred option but AFC is at 10mil and BFC is at 20... Runarsson could be a genuine alternative or he could be a negotiating tactic. Though he too has previous with our GK coaching staff so not entirely fanciful.

Also - Auba has (finally) resigned. Giddy up!

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Got a link for that Auba news? Journalists have been saying it for weeks but I still don't see a confirmation.

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ajc28 wrote:

Got a link for that Auba news? Journalists have been saying it for weeks but I still don't see a confirmation.

No link. But it's done... not sure when it'll be announced - next 48hrs I expect.
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I think Elneny will stay now, even if we were to sign Partey AND Aouar.

Smith-Rowe and Willock are not deep-lying or even box-to-box midfielders in my opinion. In our current 3-4-3 formation I see no role for Smith-Rowe, and Willock is only really useful as a bench option late on to give us some energy.

If we moved to a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 I still see no role for either of them in a starting 11. Willian or Saka would be in the attacking midfield role before either of them, in those formations. 

For me, right now, in those two deeper-lying midfield roles, we have Xhaka, Ceballos, Elneny, Torreira and Guendouzi, and that's it.

So Guendouzi is gone, lets forget about him, and if we sign Partey (or someone with a similar profile), then Torreira surely goes next (not even on the bench yesterday).

If we sign Aouar, he's far more attacking, I do not see him in one of those two deeper roles, so I don't think his signing would mean the end of Elneny either. 

Pressure is actually coming on our forwards now, big time. How will Pepe respond with Willian playing so well in what is basically Pepe's only position? How is Saka feeling right now? No completely defined role in the team, and more suited players starting in every role that he plays? For me right now, Saka's best fit in this 3-4-3 is wide right, where he's gotta battle with Willian and Pepe. 

Martinelli is better suited as Auba's back-up, particularly with Arteta preferring inverted forwards, like Guardiola. AMN has locked in the left wingback spot, and if he goes down or we change formation, I expect to see Tierney move to that role. 

Not sure where Saka comes into the team now, unless we get a lot of injuries. 

And I think we should expect a loan for Nelson. No spot at all available for him right now.

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