Category Archives: Arsenal

If the transfer window shut now, are you happy with the Arsenal squad?

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Question for the morning: If the transfer window shut now, are you happy with the Arsenal squad?

When that was asked yesterday in the WhatasApp group, the answer was surprinsgly unanimous – YES!

Some still wanted Youri Tielemans in to replace Granit Xhaka (although they would admit to an irrational hatred towards Xhaka). Whilst others – including myself – said we would not mind a winger, but it was not a disaster if we did not get one.

A couple wanted a right back, but conceded that this would be a luxury and they had no idea about the mad potential of Brooke Norton-Cuffy.

It helps to be happy with the squad when you are one of only two Premier League sides to have a 100% record. But it does feel like we have quality in the first XI and strength in depth.

We have started with the same XI against Leicester City and Crystal Palace, with the players yet to start making up a pretty decent “2nd string” (yes, I know some will start once fit. But it just shows we have that depth that we won two games comfortably without them)

Turner
Cedric Tomiyasu Holding Tierney
Elneny
Lokonga Vieira
Pepe Nketiah SmithRowe

Some might say the defence looks weak as it has a right back playing at centre back, but lets remember we have 3 top class central defenders. None of whom are in the bove XI.

The above does highlight the need for a winger – Nicolas Pepe just is not the answer. Although again if the window shut now I would not be upset him covering Bukayo Saka.

Another key factor right now is the registration of players.

With Pablo Mari and Rúnar Alex Rúnarsson both going out on loan in the last week, Arsenal have no real squad size concerns.

I will probably expand on this another day in a second State of the Squad post, but as it stands we have:

  • 27 players in the senior squad
    • Of which 4 do not need to be registered due to being U21
    • That leaves us with 2 “open slots” if we did decide to sign anyone
  • Of the 23 senior players we have:
    • 15 are non-home grown
    • 8 are home grown
    • That leaves us with 2 non-home grown slots

So in summary, if we decided to sign two new players, it would not matter where they are from as we have space for them.

That does not mean we will go out and sign anyone we want – we need to keep an eye on those U21’s who will become “senior” in the future.

We will not want to be in a situation like last summer where we have too many senior players and it means some end up not being registered.

Three of the four U21 players (Saka, Saliba, Martinelli) will require to be registered next season. So we will need to make sure there are open slots for them to be promoted to – there promotion will leave us with one senior player too many (requiring us to sell to buy)

Although this will be offset with the likes of Hector Bellerin, Cedric Soares, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Mohamed Elneny, Nicolas Pepe and Reiss Nelson unlikely to be here in 12 months time.

Those 6 departures will bring next seasons squad to 19 senior players (once the U21 have been promoted). This then opens up the space for new transfers next summer.

This is the sort of stuff Edu and his team will be staying on top of. It is not just about where the Arsenal squad is now, but also what it looks like in 12 months, in 36 months, and so on.

Anyone, I have digressed a bit too much.

So are you happy with the Arsenal squad right now? Join the conversation on Twitter:

Keenos

Judge us in October

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When the Premier League fixtures were announced, a little smile went across my face.

After last seasons horror opening few fixtures, the computer had been nice to us for the upcoming campaign.

In the first 5 games, 3 would be at home, 2 against newly promoted sides and none would be against a “Big 6” team.

Even the pesimistic fan would have struggled to make a case against us getting at least 13 points from 15. The optimistic amongst us went straight in with 15 from 15.

And that is why we should not go too OTT about our start.

Yes, you can only beat what is in front of you – and teams will drop points away to Crystal Palace this season. But just 2 games in it is too early to start talking about us being in a title race.

I do not want to be a negative nancy. In fact many people have criticised me in the past for being too positive. All I try and do is be optimistically realistic.

At the time of writing (prior to Liverpool’s game), we are one of only 2 sides to get 6 points from 6. That is somehting to celebrate.

And with the next game being Bournemouth (away), we should make that 9 from 9.

Then we have a home double header against Fulham and Aston Villa. Would 15 from 15 really be an unreasonable expectation? I do not think so.

But even if we are sitting with a 100% record after 5 games, we should not get too over-hyped. We still would not have played anyone.

Sixth game in is a trip to Old Trafford which, despite their poor start, will not be easy. We know how often we have bottled it in Manchester. there is a mental block there.

For me, we will not really see what we can expect from the season until October hits.

We start with the 10th month with games at home to Tottenham and Liverpool before visiting Leeds. Manchester City then make it 3 Big 6 visitors to the Emirates in the month before another away trip to Southampton.

Finally we face Nottingham Forest at home.

A tough month where we are set to play six games. We also have 3 Europa League games in between which will make it a 9 game month.

As the winter World Cup looms, we have a couple of tricky away games in November – trips to Chelsea and Wolves. At that point the Premier League shuts down for 6 weeks.

By the time Qatar comes around, we would have played 16 games and faced every “Big 6” side, with a 50/50 split on home and away games.

I am excited about our start, and more importantly the performances on the pitch.

But we need to respect the computer has been kind to us – and continues to have been so.

Come October, we will know where we are.

Keenos

Man City “rejects” sparkle for Arsenal

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What a weekend.

Great weather. Great beer. Great football.

It is always more enjoyable skipping into work on a Monday morning having seen your team put in a top class performance. And even better when the Man U fans who have never left London are keeping their heads down.

In the past, these guys have piped up when Arsenal lost. Usually playing videos of a certain fan TV channel and laughing. I have always said that channel’s target audience was not Arsenal fans.

Well today they will be silent. Because not only did The Arsenal win convincenly but Man U were embarassed. Humiliated. Abused.

We are getting a lot right as a club right now and this is highlighted in our transfer dealings.

We stepped away from Lautaro Martinez when the price became too steep and opted to go for Oleksandr Zinchenko at half the price.

Now Mikel Arteta had always planned to use Martinez as an inverted full back, utilising his defensive ability out wide but tucking him into the midfield in attack. We had no interest in playing him as a central defender.

Erik ten Hag had other ideas and has started him in central defence. WhoScored rated his performance against Brentford at 5.7. Ironically this is also his height.

Other Premier League clubs will ruthlessly expose his vertical challenges and he will be dominated by lumps of centre forwards.

Meanwhile Zinchenko put in another solid performance.

The performance against Leicester City also showed why it is unlikely we will go for Youri Tielemans.

In the battle between Tielemans and Granit Xhaka, the Swiss man came out on top.

Add Zinchenko as an option in the middle, Fabio Vieira, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Mohamed Elneny, we are clearly well stocked in central midfield. I would rather a winger.

Last little thought is about Gabriel Jesus.

What an astute he has been.

Edu got a little bit of flack for “buying Manchester City rejects” but Jesus’s all action performance against Leicester makes you wonder why he was not given more of a chance for City.

It was interesting to hear Raheem Sterling speaking at the weekend of how frustrated he became with Pep Guardiola’s rotation policy.

City have now lost Jesus, Zinchenko and Sterling – all of whom left for regular football. And Bernardo Silva could also be out of the door.

The important thing now is to ensure Jesus workload is managed.

Jesus can not be expected to put in a 90 minute all action performance twice a week. We will need to ensure he is taken off when the games are won, and that Eddie starts in the Europa League.

Lots to be excited about.

Enjoy your Monday.

Keenos