Category Archives: Arsenal

47 million reasons Arsenal did not buy another attacker

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I like Brennan Johnson.

Can play left, right on centre, he has blistering pace but also the calmness to do the right thing in the final third.

He was certainly on my list as a winger / striker option. I am sure he would have been on Mikel Arteta and Edu’s as well.

But not for £47million.

Everytime I saw someone say “we need another striker or winger” over the summer, I asked “who?”. They often said the same two names: Victor Osimhen and Ivan Toney.

They ignored the fact that Toney was banned until January following his betting scandal. He was also banned from all football activites until mid-September. This would have included transferring to a new club.

As for Osimhen, there is no doubt he is a talent.

Manchester United, Chelsea and Tottenham were all chasing a striker this summer. Osimhen has remained at Napoli.

You have to imagine that all 3 clubs (and more!) enquired about him. The fact he has not moved either means that the asking price was ludicrous, or he is happy at Napoli. They have just won Serie A remember!

Another man on my list was Barcelona’s Ansu Fati. He has ended up on loan at Brighton.

Without an option to buy, it will be interesting to watch him this season.

If he acclimatises to the Premier League and begins to fulfil the raw talent he showed prior to his injury, you can certainly see all the top clubs fighting for his signature next summer.

Jeremy Doku also fits in that same mould of exciting young player who can play across the front 3. He cost Manchester City £55m.

PSG spent £80m on some fella called Randal Kolo Muani. I literally have no idea who he is. Meanwhile, Aston Villa spent £55m on Moussa Diaby, whilst Chelsea spent £45m on Cole Palmer.

What we are starting to see is a trend.

Johnson, Doku, Diaby, Palmer. All would have fitted the Arteta mould, but all cost £45m or more. I do not think that is the sort of money that would have been sensible in investing on someone to be back up to Saka and Gabriel Jesus.

You then have the likes of Lois Openda, Nicholas Jackson and Bradley Barcola. All only really have one-year of top flight football in a top European league under their belt. All cost in excess of £30m, and I am not sure any are a drastic improvement on Eddie Nketiah.

In the last two windows, Newcastle United have spent over £80m on Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes. I am not sure either are top quality.

What this all highlights is that there is not many top end forwards on the market right now. And as a result, young players with barely a year experience under their belt are going for top dollar.

The fee of Kai Havertz has been questioned by some. But for £65m, Arsenal are getting a proven Premier League performer with over 300 appearances under his belt for club and country.

Others have spent not much less on forwards who are a lot rawer, a lot less proven.

Would I take Ivan toney in January for £45m? Yes. Would I have taken Brennan Johnson, Jeremy Doku or Cole Palmer for a similar fee this summer? No.

Signing a further forward was clearly not a priority for Edu and the team this summer. A Xhaka upgrade, a creative midfielder and another defensive reinforcement were more essential, and we secured all 3 of them.

Next summer I expect us to move for another forward, but I am not sure who that will be right now. I imagine Edu and his scouting team will be scouring the globe looking for someone unexpected. A bit like Jurrien Timber.

No one was talking about Timber to Arsenal 6 months ago. I think we can all agree he was an excellent acquisition.

I think our forward signing next summer will be in that vein. It will be someone who we are not even talking about right now.

My final thought is take a look through the list of forwards who moved this summer. Look at the fees they went for. And then ask yourself who you would have liked to have seen us sign.

Keenos

Declan Rice becomes instant Arsenal hero

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Does anyone still question the signing of Declan Rice?

It baffled me to begin with that people were actually questioning why we had spent £105million on Rice, but in one game he justified that price tag.

“Why sign Declan Rice when we have Thomas Partey. Spend that money on a striker” was what I read most commonly.

Thomas Partey, as brilliant as he is, can not stay fit. He has had muscle injury after muscle injury and has failed to start more than 30 games across all competitions since joining us.

His injury issues are not a new thing. Atletico Madrid also used to manage his game time – the most games he started in a single season for them was 38 during the 2017/18. Atletico played 59 games that year!

In all of the last 3 seasons, our campaign has come off the rails when Partey picked up an injury. It was clear and obvious we needed to get someone in who could be that defensive beast for 50 games a year. And Declan Rice was that man.

We have seen Rice for West Ham and England dominate a midfield on his own. Bit, strong, quick, excellent reader of the game. He is a one man defensive wrecking machine.

Against Manchester United, he was a defensive rock in front of the defence. Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen barely got a sniff.

Rashford’s goal came from when Rice pressed forward and was caught out high up the pitch trying to close down Aaron Wan-Bissaka near the corner flag.

The press worked, but we quickly lost the ball following a sloppy pass by Kai Havertz. With Rice then out of position, Eriksen got his only bit of space of the game and picked out a great ball to Marcus Rashford who went on to score a trademark goal.

It was not really a lapse of judgement by Rice. The high press worked. But it showed how dominant he was in the middle that the incident led to the only time Eriksen or Bruno were able to get on the ball and get their head up.

Declan Rice was signed for the big moments.

For West Ham, he often came up with late goals. Driving into the oppositions area in the closing stages and snatching an equaliser or winner. His attacking prowess is very underrated.

OK, it was a scuffed volley that took a deflection and some horrendous goalkeeping, but in the one swing of the boot Rice made himself an Arsenal hero.

The biggest players step up in the biggest moments. Declan Rice is one of those that consistently finds another level above anyone else on the pitch when it is needed.

And the scary thing is, under a proper coach, Rice will only get better.

He continues to learn Arteta-ball and has spoken recently about how much he has already grown in such a short period. A few more months being coached by Mikel and there will be no more argument – Rice will be the most all-round midfielder in world football.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Keenos

MATCH REPORT: Arsenal 3 – 1 Man U

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Arsenal (1) 3 Manchester United (1) 1

Premier League

Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU

Sunday, 3rd September 2023. Kick-off time: 4.30pm

(4-3-3) Aaron Ramsdale; Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Oleksandr Zinchenko; Martin Ødegaard (c), Declan Rice, Kai Havertz; Eddie Nketiah, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli.

Substitutes: Gabriel Jesus, Emile Smith-Rowe, Jakob Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Leandro Trossard, (Jorge Luiz Frello Filho) Jorginho, Fábio Vieira, David Raya, Reiss Nelson.

Scorers: Martin Ødegaard (28 mins), Declan Rice (90+6 mins), Gabriel Jesus (90+11)

Yellow Cards: Bukayo Saka

Arsenal Possession Percentage: 55%

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Assistant Referees: Gary Beswick, Lee Betts

Fourth Official: Darren Bond

VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Jarred Gillett; AVAR Simon Bennett

Attendance: 60,192

Our defender Takehiro Tomiyasu is available again after suspension for this important match today, and is on the substitute’s bench, as is Gabriel Jesus also. Aside from the long-term injury to Jurrien Timber, everyone else in the squad appears to be okay. Mikel Arteta has made three changes from the side who drew with Fulham, with Gabriel, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Eddie Nketiah replacing Jakub Kiwior, Thomas Partey and Leandro Trossard.

The visitors kicked off procedures in this white-hot atmosphere in North London this afternoon. In the early stages of the game, we applied pressure to the visitors’ defence, earning ourselves a corner within the first two minutes.which despite some great work by Eddie Nketiah, the United defence managed to keep us out. The opening stages of the game show us to be extremely comfortable both on and off the ball, and the visitors look rather pedestrian at the moment. After just twelve minutes, a surefire chance to score did not just happen for Kai Havertz, and although the resulting corner went nowhere on this particular occasion, it appears that the advantage is now ours. Oleksandr Zinchenko cleverly nipped a potential United attack firmly in the bud, and yet again our strikers were putting the visitors under pressure; Declan Rice was unlucky in not scoring a goal directly from a Gabriel Martinelli corner, and if the game continues at this pace, it must surely be a matter of time before we score a goal, despite the nervousness in the air. Despite the domination of our strikers, it was the visitors who broke the deadlock with a Marcus Rashford strike from outside the penalty area, despite Aaron Ramsdake getting a hand to it. No worries though, a minute or so later, our response was instant and clinical with our captain scoring a beautiful equalising goal with his left foot from distance that the United goalie had no chance in saving. The match certainly came alive with now with both sets of players challenging for every ball, through every tackle. Kai Havertz, in running back, brilliantly blocked a Christian Eriksen strike from twenty yards out, and despite the heat, both sides are doing their utmost to catch the other out. Eddie Nketiah was mercilessly chopped down by Victor Lindehof (who received a yellow card for his trouble), and although the resulting free-kick went nowhere, we are still trying to find a way through the United defence. Bukayo Saka received a yellow card for a late challenge on Bruno Fernandes, and with the injury time notice being three minutes, we continued to pressure the United defence, with three corners in just over a minute that tested them to the full, and although we went into the break honours even, we were by far the better side in the opening half overall.

With no substitutions from either team during the half-time break. the visitors kicked off the second half in earnest. Again, our strikers brought the game to United, who found it extremely difficult to break out of their half. Ben White hit a first-time cross into the penalty area, but Aaron Wan-Bissaka did well to rise and head it clear of danger, and then Eddie Nketiah got the ball off Kai Havertz and struck at goal but it was blocked by the United defence. We had a penalty awarded to us when Kai Havertz went down to the ground under a combined challenge from Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Casemiro; after consulting VAR, referee Anthony Taylor cancelled out his original decision. Why? It appeared to be clear-cut. Things started to get a bit physical when Lisandro Martinez was too late to the ball, caught Eddie Nketiah and received a yellow card from the referee. Gabriel Martinelli shot just wide, with Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana taking too long with the following goal kick, the result being him receiving a yellow card for time wasting. With fifteen minutes of the match remaining, Gabriel Jesus, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Fabio Vieira replaced Eddie Nketiah, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kai Havertz for the remainder of the match. A couple of minutes later, the ball was played low from the right wing by Gabriel Martinelli and it fell to Bukayo Saka eight yards out. He tried to place it, instead of hitting it goalwards and it hit the leg of Andre Onana and stayed out. The visitors then grabbed a goal, which was deemed to be offside. In injury time, Declan Rice scored his first goal for us when it fell to him at the back post, he took a shot at goal, it just caught Jonny Evans, and Andre Onana in the United goal got a hand to it but he could not keep it out, and then, simply minutes later, whilst the visitors are pushing for an equaliser, the ball broke loose to Fabio Vieira, who simply slid it through for Gabriel Jesus, who cut inside a desperate tackle from Diogo Dalot and slotted the ball past Andre Onana to take all three points for Arsenal. Such late drama!

Although the match was scrappy at times, it certainly had more than its fair share of drama. This victory takes us to fifth in the Premiership, two points behind leaders Manchester City. We got the victory here today through sheer guts and fortitude, and the will to win, which became evident in injury time. We all thought that we had lost the match when Alejandro Garnacho scored for the visitors, but nobody in the stadium nor those watching at home could surely have predicted the outcome of this match. Gabriel Jesus was magnificent when he came onto the pitch as a substitute, and although Kai Havertz did not score again today, we saw enough in his play to realise that is surely just a matter of time before he gets onto the scoresheet regularly. Declan Rice was truly immense, and what better match to grab his first goal for Arsenal! All in all, a very good day at the office for everyone concerned. Well done, chaps!

Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday, 17th September at 5.30pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon