Following the closure of the transfer window, BBC Sport went heavy on their anti-Arsenal rhetoric. This was no surprise. We are the biggest club in the world when it comes to online interactions. Arsenal fans with the way they consume online media literally keeps some media outlets afloat, gutter journalists in a job, and the pockets of ITK’s filled with Elon Musk’s pennies.

What I would love to know is who is this World Class forward that Arsenal took a risk in not signing?

Now I get that being World Class is subjective. Just like “Wonderkid”. For me, World Class will always be “if I made a World Cup squad, able to pick from any player in the world, who would be in it?”. That way, it leaves room for 2 to 3 players for every position, and takes into the account of needing defensive midfielders, attacking midfielders, actual full backs (and not just the best 8 centre backs) and so on.

For me right now, the World Class forwards are:

Strikers: Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane
Right wingers: Lamine Yamal, Michael Olise, Bukayo Saka
Left wingers: Vinicius Jr, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia

The only debate I would expect anyone to have is over whether or not Saka is World Class. If he is not, then there is not really a right winger that could replace him so you would likely go to the World Cup with 7 attackers for 3 positions.

Of the 8 players mentioned above, only one came close to leaving their club this summer – Vinicius Jr. And Arsenal were the closest to signing him. None of the others where anywhere near to being on the market.

So this makes a mockery of the article. Arsenal did not take a big risk by not signing a World Class forward. Arsenal actually took a big risk by trying to sign a World Class forward.

Perhaps, in hindsight, we should not have dropped our interest in Morgan Rogers to chase Vinicius Jr. Maybe we should have Just got that deal done. But then how gutted would we have all been had we done the deal for Rogers at £117m, then Chelsea or Man City went and paid £140m for Vinicius Jr? It would have been gut wrenching and the article headline about not signing a World Class forward would be true.

“But Keenos, your definition of World Class is too narrow”. Firstly, it should be narrow. World Class should be a term left for the best of the best. The elite. But lets entertain you and expand my definition of World Class to include the top 5 players in the world. I am sure we can agree that there should not really be more than 5 world class players for each position in world football?

Strikers: Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane, Julian Alvarez, Ousmane Dembele
Right wingers: Lamine Yamal, Michael Olise, Bukayo Saka, Desire Doue
Left wingers: Vinicius Jr, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Raphinha

For the strikers, it was a toss up between Dembele and Lautaro Martinez. I went for Dembele as he is a recent Ballon d’OR winner and starts upfront for the back-to-back European champions, and starts for France. I would probably prefer Martinez at my club though.

So none of the top 5 strikers (6 if you include Martinez) moved this summer. And like with Vinicius Jr, we actually tried hard to sign one of them.

On the right wing, I only have 4 names. They are the four I rate the highest, and then there is a big drop off to the likes of Antonie Semenyo, Yan Diomende, Brian Mbeumo, Rayan, etc since Mo Salah went past his peak. The only other one I would have considered is Raphinha, but he plays left wing these days for Barcelona and is included on my list there…

None of the right wingers in my list moved this summer. The only one in the extended list that departed was Yan Diomende. Real Madrid spent huge (£120m) on a player who is so raw and has less than 50 senior club games to his name.

As we all know, the left wing is fairly dire at the moment, It is why Arsenal struggled so much to recruit a top left winger.

Vinicius Jr, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Raphinha are clear. Then you get to the likes of Bradley Barcola, Anthony Gordon, Gabriel Martinelli, Jeremy Doku, Rafael Leao, Luis Diaz and others. Even in an extended 5, I struggle to label any of these World Class. They all have too many weaknesses.

For Barcola, Gordon and Martinelli, they all struggle against teams defending deep. If faced with an opponent with not much space in behind them, they are unable to utilise their pace and end up looking lost. As for Jeremy Doku and Rafael Leao, he can beat his man for fun but has little end project. Luis Diaz has excelled in Germany, but I think we can all agree that it just shows the Bundesliga is poor quality.

Two players not mentioned are Jamal Musiala and Morgan Rogers. Are they wingers? Or central midfielders? Attacking midfielders? Or a little bit of everything. Probably the later.

Musiala would certainly full into the extended World Class category. you would include him either in the number 10, or as a left winger. I am not comfortable putting Rogers in that category considering he is behind Gordon (and Rashford) on the left hand side for England, behind Saka and Noni Madueke on the right, and behind Bellingham centrally. We could discuss him being (potentially) a World Class number 10. But I am not sure he is that.

The likes of Cole Palmer, Florian Wirtz and Rayan Cherki also fall into that category of “Number 10 that can play out wide”. But again, this is pointless discussing as none of them moved.

In total, I have mentioned 27 players in this blog. I am sure readers will add names in the comments that I have missed.

Of those 27 players just 6 moved this summer: Barcola, Rogers, Diomende, Gordon and Leao. None of these are World Class.

So again, I ask, who is this World Class forward that Arsenal took a risk by not signing? Because I do not think they existed. Answers on a postcard.

Keenos

Arsenal’s transfer window is being made out to be some kind of disaster.

An anti-Berta narrative is being driven online, mainly by ITK social media accounts. Their anger at Berta has nothing to do with the transfer window, and everything to do with them guessing every deal wrong.

These people do not have inside knowledge on the club. They make educated guesses on who we will sign, and if they promote themselves as transfer Gods if they get 2 out of their 10 predictions. And naive fans will follow them.

Arsenal’s inaction in the back end of the window has shown them all as frauds. Most of us knew they were anyway. And as a result they have taken the position that their “information was right, it is Berta who could not do the deals”.

Andrea Berta was part of the tea that assembled a league winning squad. Alongside Mikel Arteta he is integral to the club. Some dope from Nigeria desperate for Elon’s $10 a month to fix the roof on his mud hut should not derail what we are building.

This window was far from the disaster that it is being made out to be.

We have a 23 man senior squad. 20 outfield players and 3 keepers. Go me 23 is always the magic number.

Whilst we can register up to 25, that always feels too many and you end up with a couple of senior players on the fringes, barely playing.

Last season, 23 outfield players got Premier League minutes for Arsenal. Christian Norgaard played jut 102 minutes and Gabriel Jesus played just 421. Neither really contributed anything significant and found themselves picking up splinters sitting on the bench.

Max Dowman and Ethan Nwaneri both played less than 170 minutes last season. So we basically had a senior outfield squad of 19. one less than this years senior squad.

On top of the 20, we also have the likes of Dowman and Marli Salmon offering additional numbers. I have zero concerns about our squad size.

You might be surprised to hear that Arsenal spent nearly £200m this summer. The way some are reacting you would think this was 2015 and our only senior signing was Petr Cech.

We had 3 main issues to resolve this summer.

A top class new central midfielder to take the pod of Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice. Incoming Bruno and the development of Myles Lewis Skelly means we got a 2 for one special and now have 4 top Premier League midfielders covers the two positions.

The signing of Ezri Konsa resolved a long term issue in Mikel Arteta’s squad – centre back numbers.

In the last couple of years, we had started the season with 3 central defenders. The 4th cover option was basically all our full back and defensive midfielders. No top class cover lead to William Saliba having to play through a back injury. Konsa means not only do we not to rush Saliba back, but we can also play the Frenchman just one game a week if needed.

I think we all have a right to be disappointed what happened on the left wing.

We took the risk and dropped our interest in Morgan Rogers to chase Vinicius Jr. It was a gamble worth taking and it did not pay off. Long term interest in Julian Alvarez did not materialise and it does feel we have left ourselves a little short.

But then we still have Eberechi Eze and Christos Tzolis as our left wing options. Had we sold Leandro Trossard last summer and signed Eze, then this summer sold Gabriel Martinelli, replacing him with Tzolis, we probably would not feel short changed.

I would rather we do what we have done. Stick with players Arteta likes rather then spend big on someone he does not rate and would not play. That would have just been money down the drain.

Once the Martinelli deal goes through, we would have generated in excess of £100m in transfer fees. Not an insignificant amount, especially as only two of those departing played meaningful minutes last season.

The likes of Reiss Nelson, Jesus, Norgaard, Karl Hein, Jakub Kiwior and Fabio Vieira were surplus to requirements. We have not only generated around £40m for them, we have also got their wages off the books. Jesus alone saves us £14m a year…

So we resolved two of the three major issues in the squad. The only unresolved has been a problem for a while and is a position where there is certainly a lack of talent in world football. The squad is stronger. We have lost no on significant. And we have won 3 out of 3 games, a trophy on the bag, 6 points from 6 and yet to concede a goal.

The way some are going on, you would think we’re Tottenham. Bottom of the table with 0 points. And that is ultimately where it matters.

“Winning” the transfer window means nothing. Last night on Sky Sports News, John O’Shea stated Tottenham have had the best transfer window of all Premier League clubs. I nearly spat out my faggots and mash (shout out to Giggly Pig). Has he not seen their opening two games and where they are on the table.

Transfers give fans little endorphin shots over the summer. For clubs like Tottenham, they celebrate new signings like other clubs celebrate winning major trophies. It is the new signings that give them hope before it all comes crashing down.

For The Arsenal. We are champions. We have made the little tweaks needed. Now we need to go and win it again.

Keenos

There are nights when Arsenal make football look effortless. This was not one of them.

And perhaps that made the 1-0 win at Villa Park all the more satisfying.

Bukayo Saka’s second-half goal was enough to give Arsenal all three points, making it two wins from two as the champions begin their title defence. It was hardly a vintage performance, but there was something encouraging about the way Arsenal managed the game when Villa made life uncomfortable.

This was a match that needed patience. Arsenal had to find a way through a Villa side that looked considerably more organised than the one beaten heavily by Brighton on the opening weekend. 

The first half was, frankly, a slog.

Villa started brightly and came closest to breaking the deadlock when Emiliano Buendía’s effort from distance clipped the crossbar. Arsenal struggled to establish the rhythm we saw against Coventry, with Villa making it difficult for the visitors to play through them.

There were also a couple of moments of frustration. Arsenal appealed for a penalty when Riccardo Calafiori went down under contact, but VAR ultimately decided there was no spot-kick. 

Mikel Arteta responded at half-time by introducing Eberechi Eze, and the change helped Arsenal find a little more fluency.

Then came the moment that decided everything.

Just before the hour, Arsenal worked the ball into the Villa area and Calafiori delivered the decisive low cross. Saka arrived at the back post and finished from close range.

It was not a spectacular goal. It didn’t need to be.

Saka has made a habit of turning tight games in Arsenal’s favour, and this was another example of why he remains such an important player for this team. 

What followed was perhaps more impressive than the goal itself.

Arsenal did not panic. They did not start throwing themselves forward looking for a second. Instead, they controlled the game, defended their advantage and gradually squeezed the life out of Villa’s hopes of an equaliser.

Villa finished without registering a shot on target, while Arsenal’s defence once again looked extremely difficult to break down. That makes two clean sheets from two league games. 

There is something very appealing about that.

Last season Arsenal proved they could win the league. The challenge now is doing it again, while opponents are even more determined to knock them off the top.

Not every victory will be pretty.

Not every match will produce flowing football and four goals.

Sometimes you need Saka to produce one decisive moment, a defence that refuses to crack and a midfield capable of managing the final stages.

For Arsenal, the headline is simple – Six points. Two clean sheets. Two wins.

And perhaps most importantly, another reminder that champions do not always have to play brilliantly to win football matches.

Sometimes they just have to find a way.

Arsenal did exactly that at Villa Park.

DJ