Did anyone actually watch the whole game? I only watched highlights so didn't really see our general shape and who played what roles in midfield.
Did Ramsey play in the deeper 2, or as a no.10? I'm actually burning to know this, I think it will say a lot on how we set up this season...
I've been to a number of the Borehamwood friendlies and can assure you they are nothing more than an exhibition game.
There is nothing to learn from them in terms of what it means for the season.
It'll be interesting to see if he keeps either Perez or Welbeck to cover our lack of wide players. I'd prefer he sold both and got someone who is out and out in that position, but that might be a squad reorganisation bridge too far.
I think we definitely learned one thing from Boreham Wood - that Emery is willing to play Auba on the left with Laca up top. That and Rambo's position were the two things I was looking for from that fixture. It was different this year given Emery took a stronger squad to the game than usual, probably because it's our only friendly before the american tour.
Rumour rounds morning:
Cech to Chelsea for 15mil - this has been running strong for a few days now
Gomez to us from Barca 18mil - the rumoured price tag has dropped dramatically, had been at 35mil
Kingsley Comon from Bayern to us 50mil
and this one is in the mental basket, but Willian Chelsea to Barca and if it happens, then Barca will sell Dembele to us
Also, for some reason, Perez wants to stay.
Sounds like Emery prefers Perez over Welbeck for that extra squad spot.
Rumours that Welbeck has been made available, and Everton are interested.
The Monreal rumours have re-surfaced. I really hope we don't sell him. Doesn't seem to make sense to me. Perhaps Emery has told him he won't be a starter this season? Just guessing.
Also there was an unexpected friendly last night, against Crawley Town (managed by Harry Kewell). Sounds like similar personnel to the Boreham Wood game. Won 9-0. Goals spread over the squad.
Funnily enough Welbeck's involvement with England (resulting in 1 substitute appearance) at the world cup is likely to kill his chance to impress Emery. Given Perez is setting up goals and scoring them and Welbeck won't be back for a few more weeks I'd totally understand Emery keeping Perez and selling Welbeck. The bigger challenge for Emery is of either one he keeps does he offer them a new contract, or let them go on a free end of the season?
Goal reckons we'll listen to offers for the following to fund a winger and left back:
Shkodran Mustafi, Nacho Monreal, Petr Cech, David Ospina, Danny Welbeck, Lucas Perez and Carl Jenkinson
If we lost all of them we'd be putting a lot of faith in our younger CB's and GK prospects.
Wouldn't be a horrible scenario if it was balanced out by a better LB than Kolasinac and a proper winger.
A big plus for Perez is Welbeck being so injury-prone as well.
I hope Goal is wrong there Brumbys. I don't want Cech leaving. If Leno was indeed to be made no.1 right away, and then struggled, we'd need something to fall back on!
And on Mustafi, I realise I'm probably running against the tide on this, but I actually rate him. His occasional mistakes remind me of Koscielny to some degree, and he actually has a similar skill set. I really hope he stays and Emery gets more out of him.
Mustafi is consistently inconsistent. I think if he was to come good, last season would've been it - but he got worse. Much worse.
Mustafi is consistently inconsistent. I think if he was to come good, last season would've been it - but he got worse. Much worse.
Ok lads, foal30 has still not re-surfaced... but just wondering... who's keen for another Arsenal Picks run?
If we've got maybe at least 5 of us then I'll run it...
If some of the Liverpool lads or anyone else wants to have a crack, I could have a think and make some extra wee rules so that it's not 100% Arsenal-specific?
To be fair it would still be pretty Arsenal-centric, that is the essence of it, but to get some more numbers I wouldn't mind throwing in a few carrots. For example, if any of the Liverpool/ManU thread guys (or anyone else) entered, I wouldn't mind adding in their big games through the season for all of us to pick etc... and we could make the season picks quite interesting too - perhaps pick Liverpool/ManU's top scorers etc as well...
Not sure, just some random thoughts! Of course if I get backlash from all the Arsenal lads I'll happily throw all that out the window!
I'm in Paulm.
Yea im in for another round of woeful predictions
I'm keen to get back into this
I'm in Paul
Looking ahead to the Singapore trip it's been confirmed Ozil, Iwobi, and Elneny are all back and in the mix for the trip.
Given how large the squad is and how many youngsters we'd likely take I'm more interested in whom we leave behind, than the actual travelling squad!
Squad confirmed:
Keepers
Petr Cech
Bernd Leno
Emiliano Martinez
Defenders
Hector Bellerin
Sead Kolasinac
Calum Chambers
Rob Holding
Shkodran Mustafi
Sokratis
Dinos Mavropanos
Jordi Osei-Tutu
Midfielders
Mohamed Elneny
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Matteo Guendouzi
Reiss Nelson
Emile Smith Rowe
Joe Willock
Aaron Ramsey
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Mesut Ozil
Alex Iwobi
Strikers
Eddie Nketiah
Lucas Perez
Alex Lacazette
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Welbeck, Xhaka, Liechtenstiner, Torreira, Monreal not included for World Cup duties.
Jenko, The Jeff, Campbell, Akpom all left at home - hopefully to secure moves away, none of which seems daft.
Sweet that's 5 of us so will start thinking up some ideas and post something. Leighbo is in so will include the odd liverpool pick, and the liverpool vs arsenal games will be special rounds. Will try and keep it simple though so it's still easy and doesn't take long to make picks.
Ozil's just retired from the German team citing racism. It's actually really sad reading:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/jul/22/m...
There's an upside for Arsenal in here, but I actually don't care about that - I'm gutted for him.
That's some way to retire. Good on him.
I'm in for predictions again.
Has he retired? I thought he said that he wont play while he feels subjected to racism.
Has he retired? I thought he said that he wont play while he feels subjected to racism.
Yeah fair call, retirements just a nicer phrase I guess. I don't know how/when he'll make it back though, this won't be a quick fix and he's not exactly young...
Has he retired? I thought he said that he wont play while he feels subjected to racism.
Yeah fair call, retirements just a nicer phrase I guess. I don't know how/when he'll make it back though, this won't be a quick fix and he's not exactly young...
yea agree, the effect is the same, but the intent is different. I also cant seem him playing for them again. which is a shame, coz he is an amazing player.
Why haven't we signed Max Meyer yet? Guy sounds like a young Aaron Ramsey and is available on a free. Surely he'd be a better option in Midfield longer term than Elneny or signing someone like Gomes?
Why haven't we signed Max Meyer yet? Guy sounds like a young Aaron Ramsey and is available on a free. Surely he'd be a better option in Midfield longer term than Elneny or signing someone like Gomes?
Because he's not actually that good.
Last few days has seen the classic one-two punch from the Agent of Iwobi.
One day he's being linked with Lazio, for 20m, next day he's on the verge of signing a new contract.
Guess Emery wants him then, and the Lazio story was to get the most bang for their buck.
Last few days has seen the classic one-two punch from the Agent of Iwobi.
One day he's being linked with Lazio, for 20m, next day he's on the verge of signing a new contract.
Guess Emery wants him then, and the Lazio story was to get the most bang for their buck.
I'd actually not be that bummed if we sold him to Lazio. I feel this is his season to make it work before he becomes the next Denilson.
I'd actually not be that bummed if we sold him to Lazio. I feel this is his season to make it work before he becomes the next Denilson.
Completely agree
Looks like Gazidis is gone to Milan. Crazy. Huge implications for the structure of the backroom stuff. Will be jostling for positions, power etc. and Gazidis will probably look to poach the likes of Raul and Huss Fahmy. You have to wonder how this reflects on Arsenal as a football club as well.
Probably the last thing we'd want to happen before a new season without Wenger.
That's really not ideal. I wonder if it's been approved because Josh Kroenke is going to step into the void? I know we're not a fan of his Dad, but I'm unsure of anything about Josh to make an informed assessment.
Yea I've been following the Gazidis story over the last week or so, but I'm not sure it's realistic is it? I've not seen anything concrete yet, and Gazidis is in Asia with our team right now.
What source have you got Valeo?
If that did happen, I'd see it as a crushing blow. Gazidis is really driving the change we've been going through, he's pretty critical to us right now. This 2 year period, of which we are smack bang in the epicentre of, is the most important part of his tenure with us so far.
Far too much smoke for it not to be true at this point - leading (respected) Italian journalists have been reporting on it. Lots of Arsenal fans seem to be sticking their fingers in their ears over it, like it's impossible to conduct business while in another country or something.
Antonio Vitiello says he is joining Milan; someone who never really gets Milan news wrong.
Di Marzio also says he's in 'pole position', he's considered a high tier in terms of Italian sources.
I'd be shocked if it doesn't happen at this point and it probably has been in the works for months.
Compare what happened with Iwobi - few rumours coming out re: Lazio then the next day it's sorted. Arsenal haven't addressed the Gazidis rumours at all. They could've easily shut it down immediately.
we should have gone for richarlison from watford, he would have been a handy winger
we should have gone for richarlison from watford, he would have been a handy winger
not for the money everton are paying for him.
Far too much smoke for it not to be true at this point - leading (respected) Italian journalists have been reporting on it. Lots of Arsenal fans seem to be sticking their fingers in their ears over it, like it's impossible to conduct business while in another country or something.
Antonio Vitiello says he is joining Milan; someone who never really gets Milan news wrong.
Di Marzio also says he's in 'pole position', he's considered a high tier in terms of Italian sources.
I'd be shocked if it doesn't happen at this point and it probably has been in the works for months.
Compare what happened with Iwobi - few rumours coming out re: Lazio then the next day it's sorted. Arsenal haven't addressed the Gazidis rumours at all. They could've easily shut it down immediately.
Well, surprisingly, I do understand that you can conduct business without being in the same country...
I was just thinking that to actually start the job, he obviously can't be in Singapore with our squad for pre-season, so it's not happening today or tomorrow, at the very least.
I can't comment on the quality of italian journalism so will have to take your word on that.
Will be interesting to see how it plays out. The point about Arsenal not addressing it is a very good one. You'd think they might've nipped it in the bud weeks ago if it was actually a non-starter.
we should have gone for richarlison from watford, he would have been a handy winger
not for the money everton are paying for him.
Yea I'm not sold on him at all. Very risky transfer imo, only seen him perform for half a season so far at this level.
Far too much smoke for it not to be true at this point - leading (respected) Italian journalists have been reporting on it. Lots of Arsenal fans seem to be sticking their fingers in their ears over it, like it's impossible to conduct business while in another country or something.
Antonio Vitiello says he is joining Milan; someone who never really gets Milan news wrong.
Di Marzio also says he's in 'pole position', he's considered a high tier in terms of Italian sources.
I'd be shocked if it doesn't happen at this point and it probably has been in the works for months.
Compare what happened with Iwobi - few rumours coming out re: Lazio then the next day it's sorted. Arsenal haven't addressed the Gazidis rumours at all. They could've easily shut it down immediately.
Well, surprisingly, I do understand that you can conduct business without being in the same country...
I was just thinking that to actually start the job, he obviously can't be in Singapore with our squad for pre-season, so it's not happening today or tomorrow, at the very least.
I can't comment on the quality of italian journalism so will have to take your word on that.
Will be interesting to see how it plays out. The point about Arsenal not addressing it is a very good one. You'd think they might've nipped it in the bud weeks ago if it was actually a non-starter.
Not commenting on you specifically mate; just lots of people on twitter and the like who have shut down speculation because he's in a different country. The rumours point to him starting in a few months, so that would make sense.
Nzonzi talk is back
I like him, but where does he fit? Who goes?
Elneny, Xhaka, Torreira, Maitland-Niles all have fresh contracts since Emery signed don't they?
He's not really a Ramsey replacement.
Do we have room for another body in there?
Nzonzi talk is back
I like him, but where does he fit? Who goes?
Elneny, Xhaka, Torreira, Maitland-Niles all have fresh contracts since Emery signed don't they?
He's not really a Ramsey replacement.
Do we have room for another body in there?
I reckon even if he's not a like for like Ramsey replacement, we're keeping him as an option in case the Ramsey contracts talks stall (which it looks like they have).
Lucas Perez now looking like being sold to Lazio, 6m.
Barcelona have signed Malcom, so naturally the talk has turned to Dembele and what that might mean for him...
We're also being linked with Coman from Bayern.
So 2+2=5 means we might be looking to upgrade Lucas for a winger?
