Category Archives: Arsenal

No more distractions, time to focus on The Arsenal

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That is the distractions out the way. Now to focus on the Arsenal.

We have 12 games left this season. Maybe 15. We are the in-form team in Europe. Players are returning to injury. We just need to keep focusing on ourselves and see where we end up.

Yes, we have some fixture congestion. But you can not be in the fight for multiple trophies at the business end of the season without it. If you do not want fixture congestion, then you are better off supporting someone like Spurs who are never in the race for trophies.

I will be delighted if we end up playing all 15 potential games we have left this season. That will mean we have got to the Champions League final at Wembley.

Teams these days have big squads, with 20 international players. It is down to the manager how he rests and rotates to keep players fresh.

Liverpool also potentially have 15 games left, and we are at the stage of the Europa League that Klopp will begin to take it more seriously – it is the only trophy Klopp has not won with Liverpool and he would not want his final season to end with just a League Cup.

Manchester City potentially have 17 games still play, with them still in the FA Cup. So fixture congestion really is not an excuse for any team (although I imagine Klopp will use it as an excuse).

Up first is Manchester City. Probably the hardest fixture to have after the international break. The positive from our point of view is that all of our players got through international duty without injury, even Declan Rice who played 180 minutes (was this Southgate’s revenge for Saka pulling out / Ben White situation?).

Meanwhile, they saw Kyle Walker limp off against Brazil and John Stones pull up injured in the opening minutes of Belgium. It is unclear the status of both but their worst case scenarios is their season could be over.

Walker went off with a hamstring injury. If it is just a twinge, it could be a couple of days (although if his muscles are on the brink, it is only a matter until his hamstring goes properly). If he has pulled it, that is 6-8 weeks out. Season pretty much over.

The way John Stones knee collapsed could mean it is a serious injury. The worst are always those that happen when an opponent is nowhere near. I would not be surprised if is a ligament injury and his season is over. It should not harm City as they have about a dozen centre backs that they paid £50m+ for…

I have enjoyed the conspiracy theories that both players hobbled off within 10 minutes as some sort of ploy to get out of international duty. Like England do not have their own physios and doctors who would have been able to assess straight away if they were “faking”.

Back to Arsenal. Arteta has had around a dozen or so senior players to work with this last week (they did get a few days off based on Ben White playing Uno on the beach!).

Of the 11 who have been away, 10 were in teams who played yesterday so today. With most of those playing at home, they probably got a flight back to England straight after their games and will report to training this morning following the same rehabilitation schedule as a Tuesday night Champions League game.

It will be massages, stretches and analysis work ahead of Man City today, so nothing to strenuous. And then Arteta will have 3 full days of proper training to prepare ahead of Sunday.

Of those 10 who were still on international duty yesterday, 7 started for their countries, and 3 did not play any minutes. That takes us to 19 players who either stayed at home during the international break or have not played this week.

As above, international duty will not be an excuse for whatever happens Sunday. Just 6 of Arteta’s first team were in action yesterday so everyone should be well rested!

Sunday is huge. It reminds me of Liverpool last season.

I said in 2022/23 that I will not start to believe that we could win the title unless we win at Anfield. We drew 2-2 and then fell away. It is the same this season.

It is so tight at the top. 90 points is what is needed to win it. That means 8 wins and a draw from the last 10 games.

With trips to Manchester United and Tottenham, and home games against Chelsea and Aston Villa still to come, we do not want to drop points too early in this run in. Beat Man City and I will start to believe we can do it. Lose and I fear we might fall away and finish 3rd.

Back the boys!

Keenos

Declan Rice to captain England on 50th cap as Ashley Cole inducted into Premier League Hall of Fame

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Morning!

Declan Rice will captain England tonight on the day of his 50th cap. Having played the full 90 minutes on Saturday, you would have thought Gareth Southgate would have given him the match off. Win his 50th cap another day.

Southgate has seen Bukayo Saka, Harry Kane, Harry Maguire, Kyle Walker and Sam Johnstone all withdraw through “injury”. You would have thought by now he would realise that if he wants his best players to be available, he should do deals with clubs and manage their playing time.

Jordan Pickford, John Stones, Rice, Phil Foden and Ollie Watkins all played the full 90 on Saturday. I wonder how many Southgate will pick tonight.

In terms of other Arsenal news, Ashley Cole was inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame yesterday.

I actually have no issue with Cole and what happened with Chelsea.

Yes, at the time I was fuming. He joined a direct rival and the stories about he nearly crashed his car after only being offered £55,000 a week felt crass. But as I grew up and matured, I realised Arsenal, and David Dein, were in the wrong.

Cole had agreed a £60,000 a week contract with the Arsenal hierarchy. He was happy to sign on the dotted line. Then when the offer came through it was for £55k a week. It was an underhand move by Dein, alienating a boyhood fan, academy graduate and future captain.

Whenever I see people saying “Arsenal would be in a much better position if Dein had remained involved in the club”, I think about the Cole situation and how his decision forced a potential Arsenal legend out of the club.

It was also Dein, remember, who encouraged other board members to sell their shares to Stan Kroenke, before he sold his own to Alisher Usmanov which created the ownership split and led to our decade long stagnation. It is not a surprise how far Arsenal have moved forward on and off the pitch since Kroenke became 100% owner.

I might never consider Ashley Cole an Arsenal legend, but he is our best ever left-back.

The big transfer rumour is that we are looking to “match Chelsea'” and bid £60m for Ousmane Diomande.

Whilst Diomande is clearly a bright young talent, I can not see us spending £60m on a central defender unless either Gabriel or William Saliba leave. This very much feels like a story inserted by an agent to generate interest in his client.

Likewise, I also can not see us triggering the £103m release clause for Diomande’s teammate Viktor Gyokeres.

£103m is a huge fee for someone who turns 26 soon, and has only had a decent 18 months in the Championship and 1 good season in Portugal.

I have issue paying top dollar for top players (as the Declan Rice deal proves). But this would be a huge chunk of our summer spending on someone who would not be guaranteed a start.

I expect us to spend around £160m this summer, depending on sales.

£27m is already committed to David Raya, and another £10-ish million will need to be spent on an Aaron Ramsdale replacement. That wil lleave us with around £130m left to make additional improvemnts.

We need a central midfielder and a striker. That is not up for debate. We also potentially need another winger.

Our first option is to buy a truly top striker that will be guaranteed to start ahead of Gabriel Jesus, and then Jesus is the back up striker and the cover to Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka. I do not feel Gyokeres is that man.

The alternative is to buy someone who can compete with Jesus, and potentially grow into a superstar in the future. To further add to the squad, we then go out and buy another winger so that Jesus can continue to be utilised primarily up top.

Whilst Gyokeres could be this “alternative option to Jesus”, his proposed transfer fee would mean we would then not have enough in the pot to buy another winger.

If we are spending around £130m, I would rather Arsenal trigger the release clauses of Benjamin Sesko, Nico Williams and Martin Zubimendi (total – £138m), then spend £103m on Gyokeres and only have £30m left to try and recruit a midfielder.

Remember to grab your Bayern Munich tickets if you have not already done so!

Keenos

Three Aaron Ramsdale replacements that should be on Arsenal’s radar

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I think we all know that Aaron Ramsdale will leave Arsenal in the summer to be replaced permanently by David Raya. This creates a small headache for Edu and the team as we will potentially need to sign 2 new keepers – Raya plus a second choice.

Back-up keepers are not easy to recruit. You need to get someone in who is good enough to play week in, week out if your main keeper is out long term, but also happy to sit on the bench and hardly ever play beyond the League Cup if your main keeper stays fit.

After losing his spot to David Raya, Ramsdale has played just 6 games this season. Two were against Brentford (who Raya could not face), two in the League Cup, one in the Champions League dead rubber and the final coming against Liverpool in the FA Cup.

Clubs go down different routes for their back up keepers.

Liverpool’s is Caoimhín Kelleher, who has come through their youth team. He is then further backed up by experienced Adrian – now 37 he has over 300 first team appearances to his name.

Manchester City’s 2nd choice German Stefan Ortega. He was plucked from Bundesliga relegation foder Arminia Bielefeld. Ortega clearly preferred to not play for the English champions rather than play week in week out for a team battling relegation / fighting promotion. He is backed up by the legend that is Scott Carson.

Karl Hein’s contract is set to expire this summer. It will be interesting to see what the club do with him. I do not think he is yet ready to step up as 2nd choice, and also think if he does leave, we will probably see an academy graduate (James Hillson, Arthur Okonkwo or Ovie Ejehiri) step up to be the 3rd choice.

So who might we be looking up as David Raya’s back up?

Álvaro Valles

Whoever comes in to cover David Raya will have to be a ball playing goalkeeper. Like outfield players, you would want to be able to replace him with a “like for like” so that one injury does not lead to wholesale tactical changes.

Alvaro Valles has 1-year on his contract and turns 27-years-old this summer. He currently plays for Las Palmas who sit 11th in La Liga. The Gran Canaria based side have spent much of the last 20-years in the Spanish 2nd division, gaining promotion to La Liga last season (having been relegated in 2018).

Last summer, Las Palmas signed Aaron Escandell, with the expectation that he would become number one. Valles form in his first La Liga season has left Escandell with the number one shirt and zero appearances.

Valles is currently 2nd in the race for La Liga’s Zamora trophy (The award goes to the goalkeeper who has the lowest “goals-to-games” ratio). Only Spain number one Unai Simon is ahead of him.

The keeper has been key in the way Las Palmas retain possession. often taking up a position on the edge of his box and playing as a sweeper keeper. He has had more touches outside of the penalty area than any other keeper in La Liga.

He is also an adept shot stopper, out performing is “expected goals conceded” and is more than a decent presence in the box.

Such as his form has been this season, I would imagine many top 10 clubs across Europe will be looking at him as their number one. It will be down to Mikel Arteta to convince him that he is better off being a title challenging number two than a mid-table first choice.

Anthony Patterson

The North Shields-born keeper has been in fine form this season for his boyhood club, Sunderland.

Back in August, following interest in the goalkeeper over the summer, Patterson told the Echo: “I’m obviously really happy here. This is my team, I have grown up supporting Sunderland. I’m happy here, content and looking forward to many more games. It’s that extra bit special being able to play in front of the Sunderland fans and being able to be on the pitch rather than as a fan really.”

After signing a new deal with the club, Patterson said in October: “It was a no-brainer for me really. You just look at how well we’re doing this season so far and it was quite straightforward. The club’s philosophy of young players and developing them, it’s a place where I want to be. It was a big factor because obviously we have some great young talent in that squad and can only get better really. I look forward to the rest of my time here.”

Sunderland’s recent drop in form probably takes promotion off the table this season, and the result could be that they cash in on 23-year-old Patterson.

Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City have all reportedly been watching Patterson this season.

A move will be down to whether Patterson wants to be a career number 2, or has ambitions of being first choice at a lower level and being in the frame for future England honours.

Arijanet Muric

The Burnley keeper can probably feel aggrieved at losing his place in Vincent Kompany’s team this season.

Muric was named in the Championship Team of Year last season, only to find himself start this season on the bench behind big money signing James Trafford.

The 25-year-old regained his place in the Burnley team for their last game against Brentford. It will be interesting to see whether Kompany sticks with the man that was integral to Burnley winning the Championship, or succumbs to the pressure of restoring Trafford to the line-up considering the clubs £20m outlay.

With Burnley likely to go down, it would be very surprising if Trafford is on the bench for next season. He will start considering the investment. That will leave Muric as second choice.

Having spent 7-years at Manchester City, Muric is more than comfortable with the ball at his feet and was integral in the way Burnley build from the back last season.

Muric is also homegrown, having joined Manchester City as a 16-year-old.

My choice would be Álvaro Valles. He ticks a lot of boxes we need as a keeper. It is only whether he wishes to be a 2nd choice at a Premier League chasing club against playing week in, week out at a mid-table Spanish club.

With a year left on his contract, and his replacement already in place, Las Palmas will almost definitely cash in on him this summer. There is a feeling he might be Barcelona bound.

I also really like Muric.

He proved himself as more than capable in the Championship last season and might be available for cheap when Burnley go down. As a Kosovan international, Muric knows he will unlikely lose his place as their first choice keeper even if he sits on Arsenal’s bench.

I imagine Ramsdale’s replacement will probably end up coming out of left field. Someone we would not have either thought about – a bit like when we signed Matt Turner.

There is also the outside chance that Hein has impressed enough o the training pitch that Arteta pushes for him to get a new deal and is promoted to 2nd choice.

Enjoy your Monday.

Keenos