Glad we kept Nwaneri I have to say. It’s funny, good young players look better with quality around them, bad ones look exposed.
Pre-Season 23/24
Just seen the brief highlights on Arsenal.com. That own goal feels like the kind of thing we'd do to get knocked out of the CL. Where did Havertz play?
Big Willie It was Skelly. Great ball, shame Flo couldn't wrap his foot around it enough.
Nwanieri looks class - great control and body shape / movement. Very glad he signed on.
Here's the touches from the youngsters.
invisibleman18 havertz floated everywhere, but mainly in and around the left channel
Really like a backline of Kiwior, Gabriel, Saliba and White. All four can handle themselves physically and work the ball to a good level. It’s such a base for our midfield and attack to work from.
This game highlighted to me just how much we’d benefit from another good striking option who brings something different. Jesus, Nketiah and Balogun are all too similar in style. It’s ok for continuity. But when the time comes to thrust it in rather than delicately kiss around it we really could do with something different
lorddulaarsenal Yeah it's a big problem that when we sub on Nketiah for Jesus, we just get a burst of energy, but not enough variation to require anything too fresh from the opposition.
Clrnc I guess the flip-side is, as things now stand he'll be behind Timber, White and Tomi so realistically shouldn't be getting minutes.
After the game, Arteta said: "A few of the boys have only had three training sessions so just to give them minutes and exposure to understand and start connecting with each other again [was positive].
"I’ve seen some really good things, despite the amount of changes we made. That is why the game declined, especially in quality and in control, but we knew that was going to happen.
"The way we played in the first half was really good and I think we could have scored more goals. Even in the second half we had two big, big chances to score and we didn’t. It’s part of football, and mistakes are part of the sport."
Fair assessment
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lorddulaarsenal although if we do go for that type of back line Tierney makes sense since he can also carry the ball out and play as a traditional full back
I love Balogun run. So much intent
It's one of those where the run makes the chance just as much as the pass does.
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No Pepe, Lokonga, Tavares, Patino and Cedric who have no futures here. Nelson injured, Turner already in USA.
ESR given more off time due to u21 tournament. Partey in negotiations to leave.
Cozier-Duberry the only youth player included as now our huge squad has no space for any young players. Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri and Walters dropped back to U21.
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They said Partey will join the squad next week so I don’t think it’s transfer related…
The font spacing on that Arsenal graphic offends me
Nelson just can't catch a break.
If Partey's absence is because the Saudi deal is on, I hope it's wrapped really quickly, so we can move on his replacement.
Seems more likely to be a visa issue though.
Nelson is low key injury prone no?
Now he's locked into a new contract so we can't even replace him meaning Saka is gonna have to play 60 games again…